GLGNDB
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.
Sadly, that £500m figure was a very simple average of the £13b over 27 years. But life isn't really that simple.
If you assume that the deal is indexed at a 5% cost increase every year, then the first yearly payment would be about £222m and the last payment about £828m. The total cost over 27 years would then be about £13b.
So you can see the attraction of PFI - very little initial outlay. The downside is that it does mortgage our future funds.