I seem to remember that someone moved the goalposts from airmobile to air portable and we had the ridiculous situation where Wastelands built a 90% scale model of a landrover to show that it could be driven up the ramp of a Merlin - voila instant air portability and a bucket of cash to the boys from Yeovil. Has anyone actually ever got a real landrover in yet without stripping it down and letting down the tyres?(ideal for a combat scenario)
Oh how I laughed when I heard their US101 was having to be completely redesigned because they only won the contract by blurring the capability/crashworthy requirements. The new one will be so heavy it will need a fourth engine to give it the required OEI performance
We would have no shortage of helicopter lift now if we had gone down the Blackhawk route then and would have been well placed to introduce S-92 since it shares many of the Blackhawks components. However, commonality of types to simplify engineering solutions has never been high on MoDs priority list.