Shot,
I'll have a go, but be prepared for corrective fire!
1. The £4m is probably a blanket cost covering advertising, testing, recruitment and all elements of training. Not just for the individual concerned, but also for all those from the Recruiters, maintainers, ATC, Fire crews etc up to his/her instructor amortised over the number of students that are trained - ie, not a lot at the moment. Factor in the cost of keeping Cranwell, Linton, Shawbury and Valley open with a small throughput the costs can escalate quickly!
2. Does it include trg all the way to Combat Ready? To end of OCU? To Wings? Massive differences depending on what you're measuring to....
3. Sims are used widely in the training system - approx half the hours on my CH47 refresh were in the Sim. I believe F35 will be even more 'synthetic'.
4. Not sure what the 'training ship' is. There's no such thing in RW or FJ as far as I'm aware - cabs are shared with the FL.
5. Your £120k produces a very green co-pilot who might barely be trusted to handle the aircraft, possibly a 'third pilot' for the cruise in larger airlines. The product from a RAF RW/FJ OCU is a LCR captain, and can (should) be trusted to command the aircraft (under a suitable auth/supervisory chain) from day one. ME still have the knickers in a twist over this mind you
6. Your £120k produces a competent product for take off, landing, cruise and procedural IF. The RAF product needs to be able to do all that in formation, at low level and in a diverse threat environment. That costs big bucks. Someone once told me that flying was easy, operating is the hard bit....
Hope that helps a bit?