If we get rid of Merlin to the Navy and most of the Puma's sod off to Kenya (RAF MOMBASA would be good) then why not close Odiham and relocate all CH47 assets to Benson (where the sims are too)
Grimweasel, whilst you have a valid point about collocation with the sims, have you been to Benson recently? It might be a front-line unit, but it is actually quite small. When the Danish Merlins came in, it caused all manner of upheavel, with hangars being cleared etc. The new 22 cabs will take the total size of the CH-47 fleet to about 70 aircraft.
Even assuming a sizeable number of those 70 will be on ops, at Boscombe, on exercise etc and away from Benson, I seriously doubt whether the infrastructure - ops, eng (supporting 2 variants) and admin - would be able to support that many aircraft at Benson. As it stands, the new Ch-47Fs will be one fleet operating out of Benson, with the legacy fleet operating as a completely different fleet out of Odiham.