Geoffers - there is a very good paper written by the SARF Commander that has more financial detail in it and shows how much it costs to run the SARF at the moment. I don't have the figures to hand but it certainly comes out a whole lot cheaper to have an update to the Sea Kings and have all mil crews doing UK SAR than the billions of pounds that will be spent on making profits for industry.
AH - the COMR route is the easiest way to get round regulatory and licensing issues so it will probably work out that way.