And, as if by magic, here I am.
I believe that the industry bidders asked SAR H at the beginning of the process if the answer was going to be Merlin because they didn't want to waste a lot of time and effort just to be told by the politicians that regardless of common sense, the only way forward would be to support Wastelands again.
Fortunately the decision to waste a whole heap of money on Super/future/lynx just to keep wastelands order book full will ensure that the bid for the SAR contract will be dictated by industry other than wastelands.
As for the Sea King crash, any helicopter will fall to bits if you smash it into the ground hard enough, especially with drift or yaw - from what I gather, they were very lucky to stay upright.
So the Army don't need a laison and recce helicopter with some lift capibility and the Navy don't need a Light ASW/AsurW, Laison helecopter?