Well said junglyAEO
You ask any Bagger and he will not be able to tell you which aircraft the MASC should be based on - but he will tell you which it shouldn't be based on.
The undeniable facts are this: in the main, the bag is short of three things - height, speed and endurance. In the main, any helicopter replacement for the SK7 would not significantly alleviate these shortcommings.
We could even surmise that if the bag is replaced by Merlin it is absolute proof that we do not procure on the grounds of capability, we provide jobs for the defence industry (and that brings us back to Merlin again - sorry!). In the past this was fine because shortcommings were never brought to the forefront by people dying at the front line due to inadequate equipment!!!