Yes, I noticed the thermite thing too. What they want is quite tho opposite.
I'm also amused by two other bits in that: the fact that LM have suddenly said that they promise to fix the tailhook (does that mean they weren't trying to before?) and Lorraine Martin's (the name and initials of a true company girl!) statement about the tailhook that "Our original design was not performing as expected" - it's only job is to grab the wire and it wasn't doing that, so "not performing as expected" is one way of putting it!
Anyway, the article does give a sense that things are on the move in the programme.