1) The MoD needs such a lot of strat airlift that it makes sound economic sense to have a core capability in military hands, augmenting that with leased in capacity as and when necessary. I'd suggest that strategic airlift is more useful, more often than CVF will be.
2) What is Strategic, and what is tactical? Do C-17s flying intra-theatre missions count as strat, or tac?
3) Do you want risk averse civilian crews, flying 'vanilla' airliners in theatre, or trained military professionals, flying dedicated aircraft with properly integrated DASS, DIRCM, MAWS and expendables?
4) There will always be strat transport missions that require military assets and crews to be used.
5) The RAF will have VERY little dedicated strat airlift in the future (depending on your definition) - just the C-17s, which offer capabilities that you can't easily lease in, and the FSTA aircraft - which double up as tankers.
6) Where would the airlines get their very best people from without 10, 99, 101, and 216?
