Pobjoy
I did hear talk of the problems starting years back when the " new" composite repair bay was the unused because of some sort of dispute ( elf & safety + a bit of industrial action if I remember correctly ).
The result was a backlog of unserviceable airframes building up with some being written off for what a civil gliding club would have considered a routine repair.
It should have been picked up a lot quicker by the MoD and the contractor made to fix the problems but I suspect the contractor was not paying enough money to attract experienced staff and no amount of pressure from the MoD could have resolved the problems without the contractor getting outside help.
The other issue is that the MoD has much bigger fish to fry than gliders and not much glider expertees to bring to any dispute with the contractor who they must of assumed and trusted could run the maintenance of these simple aircraft.