Max,
The advantages in support and currency are huge
I'll half buy one and quiz you on another. Firstly on currency: co-location (where-ever) on an in-service fleet should make more airframes available, if the correct priorities are given, so yes 'type' currency could be improved, but I think the tps would all argue that the are current wrt flt test.
What advantages in support would there be? I see none. The engineering support in-service isn't the same as the support needed to run a flt test organisation. This is going to be more noticable on development aircraft - how much flt test goes on before a uniformed engineer / sqn pilot gets their hands on the aircraft?
sw