Have to agree with airpolice to a degree this govt has not only run down our armed forces but the Industries that supported them. It does worry me how dependant we are getting on other countries to supply our kit.
I see the reason the contract for Puma 2 has to go to Romania they are the current Puma experts and refurbished the SADF ones the RAF bought a few years ago. And Puma does need updating or are we just going to repeat the wessex saga all over again?
Quinetic appear to be doing a reasonable job with Chinook HC2.5 backdate and westland work well with Seaking. The other option maybe shelve Puma 2 and start low rate ordering of next generation chinook? RAF has always made it clear it wants more chinooks so why not phase the puma out slowly?
I wonder what the US is going to do with the VH71 airframes and could westland convert them to HC4's?