My intention is not particularly to point the finger at BAE. In order for these things to happen, someone had to order it, design it, and build it, and someone had to pay for it.
My understanding of the relative level of involvement of politicians, the military, and contractors in the decision-making process is hazy, and presumably somewhat variable on a case by case basis anyway. What irks me is that an absolutely staggering series of cock-ups has been perpetrated, on a scale so vast that it defies easy description - and it's happened so much that it's now pretty much accepted as normal procedure.
I couldn't possibly care less about the intercine squabbling of the organisations involved. Hideous, unforgivable incompetence has been committed, again and again, and those responsible should be punished -and more to the point replaced, to minimise the likelihood of any further billion quid dropped bricks. I don't care who they work for.