The important thing for the RJ isn't the resurfaced existing runway, its how much longer they are going to make it, so that the first thing an RJ doesn't have to do once airborn is go look for a boom equipped tanker.
Exactly! I believe the issue that was raised circa 2008 when mumblings of RJ were becoming more pronounced, was that the Waddo runway was short by about 1000 ft for an ops sortie of any useful length, as the USAF ODM required the field lengths to be factored.
Lets hope things changed...
BTW; the R1 used Conningsby during the big dig of 2004.