This rationalisation process will take a lot of the interest out of the UK police market for industry. It will impact on silly places like Helitech or other shows....
At the moment with 30 or so target customers 'they' have the chance of getting a share of the spoils, now it will be all or nothing. OK ECS has pretty much got downlinks sewn up but that chink in the armour represented by the Mets insistence on being different was good [if futile] competition for ECS and for the rest of the many downlink manufacturers even though they were ultimately never to get in the door ...... take away competition on the supply of flight suits, leather jackets, boots, helmets, gloves, fuel... and there is a danger that the number of potential future competitive sections of industry will wither and die in the smallish UK market place.
Yes there will be winners and they will do well over even the reduced 23 aircraft fleet [23 times any item is good money] but take that process five or ten years down the road and the present supplier product/support goes downhill and where are your alternatives? Bust to a man so by then you may end up getting your alternatives from outside the UK.
Ultimately there are not so hidden dangers in single sourcing.