LFFC,
I was not suggesting (I hope) that Wikipedia was accurate. I was hoping to find some earlier, or out of date, references to support SouthBound's contention that we were not planning an 'active' AAR capability but were seeking a contingent capability with the aircraft used for revenue when not needed for AAR.
I would love to have seen the scheduling plot. Given a civil utilisation of better than 10 hours per day it would follow that a given airframe would be fully employed when not on AAR and that short notice surge would be nigh impossible.
Of course unlike loaded and self-loading freight fitting and testing AAR kit might take more than 30 minutes!. How many AAR platforms would be needed? To guarantee an airborne AAR for a given mission would you need one or two tankers?
To maintain a UK Q do you need a tanker?
What about a trail etc etc?