CEFOSKY......let's face it the Canadian press like a good story ,especially about the S92 and EH101 and the politics.
However there does seem to be a grain of truth as by now the first CH148s ought to be test flying the ASW systems if they were being delivered to the customer as per spec at the end of this year.They also have other mods,like a folding tail etc which doesn't seem to be airborne yet.
In fact Sikorsky has yet to announce any first flight of the CH148 variant to my knowledge.
A recent issue of the UK newsletter Helidata says that the first deliveries will actually be in trooping configuration to provide support in the Gulf and that these were due to arrive in early 2009....the magazine has been saying that consistently since last year in fact so I guess that could still happen ??