Many people have said it and its true, stop using lift helos for other roles. Lets have a cheap COMR platform which the company provide the best DAS for and get going. If money is in short supply lets get rid of half of those very expensive grey Merlins. Rather than lose their capability lets just put money where it is needed.....as I heard the other day "funding will only be provided for current operations and not future projects".
Wonder how many EC635 we could buy for 20 grey merlin??.....!!!! loads I think!.
Food for thought