Thanks Pr00ne, spot on. and the argument extends far beyond just T1 fleet and old aircraft numbers.
How many time do we see " oh that Lightning is too expensive, for that money we could have had 10 x ?? (F16 / F18/F15 insert what is flavour of the day on the BBC). What folk fail to realise is you then need 10 x more pilots, 10 x more engineers, 10 x more spaces to hangar the aircraft etc. How that translates back through the pipeline to how many trainees you need to get to the 10 x frontline qualified pilots ( and WSOs as well) to occupy this vast number of airframes.