Torque - you are quite right but that gold standard isn't affordable within the present budget. The main reason AW seem to have pulled out is that to provide all the aircraft, SAR cover, training et al would have left no money as profit and therefore not commercially viable.
The ridiculous comedy/tragedy whereby the number of mil personnel became fixed at 66 is symptomatic of the problems - more mil personnel would mean less cost but the process has gone so far that any further slippage will start to impinge on the end of the MCA interim contract, opening a whole new can of worms. Thus, even though a possible solution is available and the errors made have been recognised by those in power, we will continue on the same path because no-one is brave enough to say no - possibly because it opens the doors to possible litigation since bidders could have submitted different bids had they actually been free to suggest numbers for the mil/civ balance.
Strangely there doesn't ever seem to have been a 'do nothing option' case put forward in order to show the cost of what we presently have and therefore the value for money that the SARH contract would provide to the taxpayer
