pr00ne -
Unchecked beat me to it. My cunning plan works on the basis that the CH-47 and the Merlin are roughly the same size, and therefore with a bit of thought and careful planning you should be able to get a smaller number of CH-47s into the same real estate currently occupied by almost 30 Merlins.
I can't remember off the top of my head the exact size of the Puma force, but whilst things are certainly cozy at Benson, they are certainly coping. And if push came to shove, I'm sure you could come up with some cunning plan that involved somewhere like Little Rissington (currently home to a VGS) or Kidlington to house the AEF / UAS.
Yes it might take a bit of intellectual horsepower to work it out - which would be a novelty rather than just saying 'yes Sir, splendid idea' or employing a firm of consultants on an exorbitant fee (then we could only get 18 new cabs!) to state the bleeding obvious. In our current, ahem, straightened times throwing money at some half arse plan like Belvedere which didn't work to start with really should be a non-starter now. Let's actually make us of the resources we have and if needed spend the consultancy fees on bringing them up to scratch so they are fit for their current and future purpose.