Jack and penny pincher. The problem is anything that is done to adjust the fuselage or dimensions of the Lynx package is going to cost a huge amount. The whole idea of going with the Lynx yet again was because we were told we had bugger all money so whatever we got needed to use as many components from current Lynx. The first few prototypes of FLynx will be new(ish) builds but the remainder of the production versions will use most of the bits from our current cabs when we hand them back to AW. At this stage of the game if we decided that we wanted to increase the volume of the cabin, it would make Typhoon look like a bargain. Just look at how much it is going to cost us to have a castoring nose wheel fitted! Fiddling with the MRH or doing anything that requires a massive redesign is a no go.
Penny, you've hit the nail on the head regarding how the crews are going to be quite embarrassed due to their shiny new cabs not being able to do bugger all.
Jack. The current Lynx design is as far as it can go. There really isn't much more that can be done to it without a massive redesign. There just isn't any growth left. The WG30 demonstrated that it was a step too far for the head, blades and transmission. They had a bit of a tendency of falling out of the sky. As I've said, Lynx has proved itself to be a very capable naval platform and long may it reign. Its just pants as a utility solution. And remember, that was what was required - a battlefield utility helicopter. When it was seen that FLynx had less utility than a plastic flick knife its role was hurridly changed to the nebulous 'ISTAR' and with that a complete rewrite of the AACs core roles. 0-1 to the crabs.
No one has had the balls to actually prescribe what 'light utility' means and how important it is. It just means that Merlin and Chinook will take up the slack to fill that role. Of course, we have hundreds of them just knocking around spare dont we?