Orca
You could say that KAF / Bastion cost the MOD nothing, or very close to nothing, as it is paid for from the contingency pot. Salaries, a proprtion of the eqpt running costs etc would be paid whether the individual was on ops or on (for example) Red Flag. So an anti-CVF stance could argue that it is £4Bn+ cheaper to the MOD to run fixed wing aviation from a land base in AFG than from a spangly new carrier over the horizon (assuming of course you don't buy them...)
.
I suspect the whole "combat ready" thing was to keep the NAO and other beancounters off the MODs back by saying they have met a target date! I'm also lead to believe that the original press release by the force commander declaring the Typhoon ready for everything and anything was quickly pulled and edited when the grown ups saw it (sadly after it had hit t'internet). Hope he hasn't blown his CBE ....