dervish, thank you for your more balanced reading of my post. your assessment is pretty much spot on. if an impartial observer has doubts over P-8, then the scrutiny it would come under from those who make such decisions would be significant.
another X billion down the drain simply won't be allowed to happen. Even a whiff of risk (of under performance, lack of / inferior capability etc) is likely to scupper any proposal and there's more than a whiff surrounding P-8 at the moment
my only vested interest is to see tax payers get value for money