Don’t usually post on this site but I think a little balance is required here! Lots of Apples and Oranges being compared; new aircraft with old!
My gut feeling is if the UK was looking for a cheap but capable helicopter to replace the Puma and Sea King, it wouldn't go far wrong with this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurocopter_EC_725. It may look like a Puma, but it is a completely different beast. In fact, it is so good and so reliable (after all, it's had 40 years of improvement) that its giving them a big problem in trying to sell the NH90, a helicopter it outperforms. It has none of the vices of the present Puma but many of the virtues. It has powerful engines with anticipators and a wider undercarriage that allows ship borne ops. http://www.aviationtoday.com/rw/military/utility/1733.html
EC are building them at a fast rate of knots down at Marignane and, because there are some 600 of the family in service, spares and through-life costs are great value. Despite the recent incident in the North Sea, it is likely to be the aircraft of choice for the off-shore oil business for the foreseeable future. Brazil has just procured 50 of them at about £15M a go which compares very favourably with the £10M (published price of £300M divided by 30) we are about to spend on refurbing the present fleet.
I don't see why we should always buy from Westland. We need an on-shore capability for sure and there is a great argument for not exporting money to other countries unnecessarily through imports. However, they got the WildCat deal without competition, in order to retain a DA capability and the DIS specifically stated that we would continue to look to the international helicopter market where necessary. As the second biggest defence exporter in the world, we adopt a protectionist stance at our peril.
With the AW149 being a high risk option technically, Black Hawk being too small internally, Merlin being too big for some roles and almost twice as expensive, the 725 is not the bad option that has been portrayed on this thread . The price and the fact the production line is already up and running (and possibly could be duplicated in this country as the supply chain is already in place) make it a good runner.
By the way, I don't work for EC, have any connection with the programme or have any vested interests! Just think some balance is required.