Doing some maths based on the top end figure of 400m Euros for the 2 Saudi MRTT, I came up with the following:
1xA330 MRTT costs approx £139m to purchase.
£500m per year is the approx budget per year for FSTA under PFI.
RAF will get what 9 to 14 aircraft under this scheme.
For the same £500m per year, the following could be purchased outright:
3xA330 MRTT
Spares & Training.
I would make the following proposals regarding FSTA.
Year 1 budget - use this as deposits for aircraft. Based on a 10% deposit the RAF could secure slots for 30 aircraft and have money left. Remember final payment for each aircraft occurs on delivery. Let's say we order 24 aircraft in the following fits:
8 X MRTT with Boom.
8 X A330F
8 X A330-200 include 1 in a dedicated VIP fit and 1 in a re-rollable VIP fit.
Deliveries at the rate of 3 a year for 8 years.
So over the course of 8 years we would have increased our capablities and bought and paid for the aircraft.
The A330 & A330F both have the range to easily do UK to Middle East non stop.