Well,if you get another, you'll find out if I'm right
I got interested cos someone brought it to my attention that there had been an incident or two (one serious), going into Kandahar. It was being suggested that it would be extremely useful to have a UK based Sim, not least, so that C17 crews could practice Afghan approaches with crosswinds etc to their heart's content, instead of learning on the job. The other training issue brought up was the extremely limited NVG training crews were receiving before being cleared for NVG approaches operationally.
I did a bit of digging and have it on very good authority that 8 aircraft would automatically trigger funding for a UK Sim.
I was in Brussels last week and chatting about this pooled resource for C17s for smaller EU countries. The subject of Sims came up again. Seems daft to me that you don't have one already, but I am sure that those in high office would argue that it is desirable but not necessary. The thrust of the argument being the training provided in America is more than adequate. I know this because I have already had the discussion...