Trojan - I'd argue about the "relatively" cheap comment - If we follow Afghan's point of the battlefield being a dangerous place requiring specialist skills - you just can't turn it on at a moments notice.
AFGHAN - I'm not going ot bother trying to explain it to you. No point really. You bang on about the battlefield requirement - well, if we were a large defence force and constantly getting into that kind of op - fine, but the ADF is not. The ADF can't afford to have very specialised aircraft in a number of roles - by that I mean 7 types that can only do 7 roles (AEW&C is probably one of the few). Even the new tankers are multi-role. You come across as the typical narrow minded individual who can't see the big picture. Prove me wrong and fess up to your qualifications here (PM if you need to) or give up.
If you just want to do battlefield support in a Black Hawk - go join the US Army.....................................
NH90 was purchased as a multi-role aircraft - needing to be capable of doing several roles - NOT just carting troops around the battlefield. The last time the ADF did that was Vietnam - ask Bushranger about it.
Oh - and if you are wondering who put in the requirement for Weather Radar - it would have come from the guys in Capability Development, and at least one (if not two) of the guys who worked there when I was on FASCIR's staff were EX Black Hawk - and the definitive one I know who was there was an ex Black Hawk Captain. Also of interest, around the time of the overseas visit in 2001, the LTCOL who headed the team of Army guys in Capability Development had the initials AD - is he still Commander 16 BDE?