I was in Kandahar at the time the T* was U/S. It wasnt DAS related, it was a big engineering fault though and it took quite a while to fix (even when the spare part did arrive.)
The Hub and spoke idea is a good one, except we dont have enought tac AT to do it. Its also extremely costly and manpower intensive, The americans do it at the moment - but hey guess what they have the ac. The MOD cant get passenger charter ac to go to kandahar direct. At the moment the T* is the best we have.
The best idea would be to follow the basic plan of the C17. They were bought as a stopgap between the present day and the A400M. Lets buy or lease 4 A330's, slap DAS on them (but get it done properly like on the C17) and use them. Retire the 10's and use the Tanker T* for AAR. The 3 remaining T* C2 should be able to manage the cyprus flights...... shouldnt they......
Also, isnt there two civvy T*'s sat at marshalls waiting for the MOD to buy them? Just a thought.