Sarge – good point!
OFO - Flying Training gets very much more expensive as the aircraft get larger, faster and more complex, and award of Pilot Wings comes far earlier in the Training system than it used to. Weapons training is especially expensive. The National Audit Office figures for pilot training costs put it at £6.1M to get a Tornado pilot to a Sqn – note that this is not even Combat Ready. By the time a pilot completes his first tour and starts to get some useful quals, you are looking, conservatively, at a £10M investment.