The RAF has a number of roles, and one is an expeditionary force, able to deploy and operate across the world.
Sending four aircraft to Malaysia seems like a great opportunity to work up many of the skills specific to expeditionary operations - and while sending 100 maintainers may seem like overkill, their training matters just as much as for the two-winged master race.
Think through all the aspects of the task and you'll find that it probably was pretty cheap and will have tested quite important bits of the system.
But that won't interest a journo with a political axe to grind
