Turkeyslapper.
I beleive that was the original intent of the selection for the NHF-90 proposal, would not have been my choice, but hey, the dice has been thrown etc.
Rather than reinvent the wheel perhpas DMO (and to be fair to the proffessionals that work there, they would) have conducted an exhaustive review of the capabilities of various offerings from arond the world and presented their findings to those that control the purse strings.
Blame, as ever, lays squarely at the feet of those 'politicians' who (may have) distortorted the recommendations of the DMO at the time.
Would prove very insightfull if the RAN were to publicly voice their choice of a 'systems provider' preference. I might take a punt and bet that it may have been at odds with what was chosen?
Then again, who else is flying a Sea King replacement sucessfully? Canada? UK?
Is there such a thing or has that requirement evolved as per the current offerings?