ORAC what your post doesn't tell you is that they are referring to SDD money and LRIP tails being shifted right
never take a naysayer at face value
Lowe Flieger, thanks for your post and its answers
The planned reduction in the number of aircraft was, it turns out, tied to the decision to buy the C rather than the B. The thinking - unpublished in the SDSR but known to its authors - was that the greater range of the C meant that fewer aircraft would be required to deliver the same military capability. When that decision was reversed, and the STOVL version went back on the UK's shopping list, the reduction in fleet size was also reversed, and the planned UK buy went back from the unspecified lower number to 138 .