I believe the first course to go straight so Shawbury direct will do so very soon, as a test to see what happens. The Army still have a contract with Babcock at Barkston Heath, to train there, with at least a year to run so no sudden departure. EFT teaches airmanship, IF, Nav, capacity and ability to learn. Mincing around in the back of a Squirrel won't help these. It's an experiment at a cost and time saving measure which I don't think will be successful. Savings on a relatively cheap Firefly per hour will quickly be blown on a turbine heli. If one of the pilots being sent straight to Shawbury on this new scheme is chopped, I'm sure they would be entitled to demand to be sent to Barkston for the same training their predecessors recieved.... more incurred costs. I think it's a bad idea but who knows without trying and seeing what happens. The Army are already ahead in terms of training without holdovers so who knows what they might achieve.