Nimbev, Green Night,
as the one who may have started the mature a/c post, perhaps I can explain what I meant. My main gripe was that MOD thought that by buying a proven 'off the shelf' a/c they did not need much in the way of spares. Of course the UK fiddled about with this 'off the shelf' buy to such an extent that our E/H (take your pick) became a completely new model, the 'K' (short for UK).
Many airforces had successfully operated the C130 in various marks before we got ours. For example the Indonesians were using them during Confrontation when we were still using the already obsolete Beverley and Hastings.
The FSII fiasco has already been mentioned but it is absolutely typical of MOD bean counters that the concept of spending a penny today to save a fortune tomorrow escaped them. And probably still does, alas.