Let us by all means focus on the real issue:
This is what I have been trying to do. The ATC needs to decide what its role in the 21st century is, and until it does that everything else is academic. If I was the man at the MoD I would be expecting some clarity here by now.
I don't propose to bandy words about how you get into flying jets in the RAF these days. I asked this question of their recruitment folk and that was the answer I got. Your friends may have joined up before this minimum was in use. Or they may have presented with a good enough equivalent. Can we leave this topic now?
I doubt that re-equipping the ATC with new gliders (or fixing the current fleet) would cost much in comparison to the cost of a batch of F35's for the QE. The ATC need however, to establish the goals they are seeking before another penny is spent. As you rightly point out it is OUR money.
If it is 'air experience', then there are other ways of giving that without running a large military gliding club. But I think it would be hard to find any youngster who has not been up in some kind of aeroplane these days. If it is the experience of taking to the air on your own (which can be life changing in many ways) then the ATC will indeed need a lot of gliders - which is where I came in.