Globe Trotter asked:
What capacity exists to increase pilot throughput should that be an outcome?
Easy answer to that - none whatsoever. The UK no longer has sufficient aerodromes, training aircraft or QFIs to support anything more then the handful of military pilots undergoing flying training these days....
The last increase I can recall was around the time the Tornado was introduced. Valley was at full stretch and the RAF had 3 TWUs at Brawdy, Chivenor and Lossiemouth. QFIs in non-instructional posts were pulled back to augment UAS training a little later, but there was sufficient capacity in the system to replace them....
Once the UK could afford to give potential pilot recruits 30 hours of PPL-level flying on Flying Scholarship schemes, then either 2½ years at RAFC training to Wings standard - or 3 years at university flying about 30 hours a year at the UAS under regular RAF QFIs.... The JP course was about 140 hours, but reduced to around 120 for UAS graduates.
Since then it's been cut after cut after cut. MoD cannot even manage a fleet of Air Cadet gliders, there are no Flying Scholarships, UASs do so little flying that they're hardly worthy of the title and most of their 'staff' are retread FTRS long out of regular service. Cranwell has a few plastic pigs and a handful of King Airs and the ogre of MFTS is about to put the final nail of the coffin of the once proud RAF flying training system.....
So coping with a pilot training surge requirement? No chance whatsoever