If Linton closed, the ability of the RAF to respond to any need for a large increase in the number of its pilots would be severely compromised.
But ever since the creeping cancer of contractorisation has been inflicted on the UK Armed Services, there are no longer sufficient QFIs 'in the system', or spare aircraft available to meet a surge.
There used to be a number of QFIs at UASs who could be used in an emergency. I was one of those and was recalled to operations for GW1, as was my co-pilot who had been an EFTS QFI. All gone now, a few civvies are all that's left.
MFTS (which I totally despise and hope will eventually be $hitcanned) is only required to meet some beancounters' target throughput, with no redundancy or surge capability. No doubt BV will leap to the defence of Valley and the Hawk T2
, but if there's ever another large increase in the need for FJ pilots (as there was in around 1972/3...and again for Tornado), what would be the outcome?
UAS and BFTS tours were once available as a break from the pressures of front-line flying. Not now though - and I can't see many RAF pilots volunteering to fly the Ford Prefect on an island whose weather factor is far from ideal for basic flying training.
Squaddified aerodromes such as Abingdon, Brawdy and Chivenor should only have been released from RAF use with an overriding requirement to maintain the runways and ATC facilities on a care-and-maintenance basis.
Sometimes I wonder whether some VSOs even know which RAF airfields are still open. In 2001 I was asked to fly a Gp Capt and a Wg Cdr to Newcastle in a PA-28. "Can't we land at Acklington or Ouston?", one of them asked....