Robo well said.
There are of course a lot of good lads down at Boscombe, civies and military. However, how long must the RAF put up with this drawn out and costly way of doing business. Legally we must use QinetiQ to get MAR advice, but this could be obtained more efficiently if the system was streamilned by using more Service expertise. Why for instance do they need their own airfield, they could send the boffins/TPs to the trials aircraft base and conduct work there. Also, do we still need the anachronistic idea of using non-specialsit TPs conducting trials on aircraft types they have never flown before. We just end up re-inventing the wheel later on. Still maybe they will go bankrupt and the system will have to change.
Quote from another thread "the C17 has had the most successful introduction to service of any aircraft". There's a b****y good reason for that!