Once the force went low level the Shrimps and Divers were relegated to recovery phase. They were obviously not prepared to put money into recovery aids and with the future of the V-Force in doubt after 1968 . . .
Given its roles pre-FI, both in low level conventional attack and high level nuclear strike which still applied in some theatres, it would seem funds were going to the MRCA.
Now if they had fitted an AWG 9 and a battery of Phoenix on a rotary launcher in the bomb bay you could have had a long range interceptor that could destroy a Badger raid, hack the Shad, and cause the Backfire to evade and go supersonic much earlier. Properly managed it could also have pushed the Flanker range back too.