I'm a bit out of touch, but this must be caused by the FTSs pushing out more studes than the OCUs can cope with. I've heard tales of 18mth holdovers. The skill fade for an abo during that period is huge. So, sooner or later, someone has to turn off the tap for a while. When I finished rotary training in '70, I had two days to wait before the OCU started. The present situation will be hard on the youngsters, but has to happen if the basic training machine has been overproducing. Different situation for the fast-pointy-things but there, the number of jets to fly has been cut dramatically, so almost inevitable.