the airbase list holds good
Are you sure? Even with the reduced buy of JSF?
According to the press, some £40M has already been invested in getting Leuchars to where it is now
Even if the press are right, £40 mil is peanuts compared to how much money is being spent/wasted on other stuff. Lossie had a new runway recently (2005?) so if Lossie closes, some of the money spent there would be wasted (new WO/Sgts Mess, new Med Centre etc).
I'm sure the weather factors alone would prove limiting with such an extended logistics chain given that Typhoon has a quite different Engineering support arrangement than Tornado
I'm not sure I follow - the weather in Moray is usually good (which is why the two airfields have survived for so long - no longer
).
And from the point of view of supply chain, both Lossie and Leuchars are sufficiently far away from Coningsby/civilisation that there's not much to pick between them!