Quelle surprise! Shock horror newsflash - Military SAR found not to be that expensive after all!
So that leaves a couple of options -a. Trim down the SARH bids to meet what the treasury is prepared to spend, which realistically means reducing capability by cutting corners on training and equipment or b. Fund the MoD to be the full service provider (that should go down well with some here
) and take another look in 10 years time.
Option c would be to continue the process to the bitter end and finish up paying more than originally estimated just to replace a system (especially the training one) that works reasonably well and also provides mature, experienced operators for the civilian market (and has done for many years).
In the meantime all 3 bidders have spent millions of their own money which for at least 2 of them will have been completely wasted - maybe they are waiting to see who blinks first and pulls out of what has been a very protracted and pointless competition thanks to a lack of govt involvement and direction.
I believe the MCA started us off in this direction under the previous leadership in a bid for world domination (or at least UKSAR) and it doesn't seem likely there will be any winners but lots of losers (unsuccessful bidders, taxpayers, Mil SAR) unless something drastic happens.