Ah well, a winner for Westlands and Defence Industry however a carefull ommission of the words a good thing for the Services. Yet again Westlands announce significant redundancies during the decision making period and the politicians fall over themselves to award them contracts that do not necesarily benefit the end user.
Lynx:- Too small to 'lift' anything of use on the battlefield. Difficult to see how availability/serviceability would be increased or surely the technology would have been incorporated in existing Lynx to improve it's reputation! Range limited, no cabin space etc. etc.
I'd love to see a costing to balance against a further purchase of non radar equipped Apaches for the Army! We already have the best find aircraft on the rotary battlefield but not necesarily sufficient numbers of weapons delivery platforms. Buy more 64D's, increase weapons platforms and use existing ones with radar in the find function as well.
IMHO