EAP86
Your recall from 80/90s is spot on. ADRP (who at the time were manned by very good people) and Cranwell joined forces and everyone with airworthiness delegation was sent on a refresher course to have this stuff injected intravenously. My course was in late 1993, and it was reinforced that year by the issue of DCI GEN 89 1993 Airworthiness Responsibility for UK Military Aircraft. But as a Technical Agency, I had been given it all a couple of years earlier, around the time the Montreal Protocol was being implemented in anger, because we had to renegotiate our contracts with the DAs. (Commercial don't do that stuff when it comes to airworthiness). But the abiding memory is of my boss (the author of the only dedicated airworthiness procedural Def Stan) writing to AMSO and pointing out this new mandate increased the cost of maintaining airworthiness. AMSO's reply was to apply a further 28% cut in funding. This was noted, and criticised, by the Director of Flight Safety (RAF) in August 1992. This criticism was met by another (!) 28% cut the following year, making the Chief Engineer's position crystal clear. This is what MoD is still trying to recover from.