I didn't say I supported Sea King, I merely pointed out this 'thrust' for Puma, Supa Puma or Cougar (whatever you want to call it) appears to be driven by politic rather than capability.
As for quoting from EC's glossies
- we can play Top Trumps if you like. I choose troop capacity for Utility Merlin = 40, so I win.
As you know, we can't and don't believe the hype - it's not a straight comparison. In real life neither of these aircraft can carry anything like that number of troops over the distance we require - try 4 or 5.
And as for £20M a copy; they will make that up in through life costs I'm sure.