I am of course only coming on this thread by invitation.
Most in the RN know who I am and if hyd3failure had an ounce of true Merlin knowledge he would realise that his posts are most definitely ignorant.
I have 500 hours on Merlin many of which in testing it to the limit around the world. It is by far and away the BEST helicopter we have in Service at present taken as a package.
I have tested both the Sea King and Merlin to the deck and the Merlin is far superior. Whilst some may criticise particular area of the flight envelope or clearance much of this has been brought on by the modern safety first culture that we now live in. Legacy aircraft have many get out clauses - new one's do not. Hence the Chinnook Mk3 fiasco.
Before you slag off this aircraft the Canadian Armed Forces are hugely up beat about it in the SAR role and they have racked up 1,000s of flying hours in a short space of time.
The main problem in the RN has been an underestimation of the support required of such a modern all singing and all dancing aircraft. The £840m you mention is not to bring current aircraft up to speed it is in fact a full upgrade program(CSP) to the avionics, systems and flight controls (which will make this a fly by light aircraft).
Your short sighted (probably Lynx views) are typical of the misleading scorn poured on this aircraft. Whilst I don't think Merlin(US101) will win the US Presidential race, it has been such a SERIOUS contender to rattle Sikorsky and make them play the Foreign card.
I personally have nothing against the Lynx and note with satisfaction that Merlin chaps do not sit on this network slagging off that force. As is usual when people feel threatened (or jealous) they like to slag of the other guy (see Sikorsky above).
Lets face the facts.
We need a mix of modern and up to date aircraft. With more money we get all we want. That is never going to happen and compromises have to be made. If you have Carriers you need big maritme aircraft to support and protect it- Merlin does this job.
All talk of Merlins and CVS are spurious. Sea King ASW were kicked off way before Merlin arrived and as someone keenly pointed ut earlier its the stores and support setup with GR7 that does it not the other way around.
As with many threads on here we should avoid the shouting and slagging especially intra-service.
The Grey fleet is small and on the whole effective. Personally I will be glad to go back.
Oh and by the way - lets keep recruiting together.