Amen to that, Tourist.
FWIW IMHO, i think this is all too far gone now to be reversed. It's come out in public, the outrage that would come from telling the Junglies that they're not going to have a shiny new helicopter after all would probably be a bit too much for the govt to stomach - not sure a new Def Sec would want any bad news in the first few months of his term. The cost vs benefit is probably outrageous but they can easily offset that by not marinising Mk3 to Mk4 and just making the Junglies make-do with an aircraft that they can't even send below deck on their flat-tops. This is an outrage in itself but easier to convince the public it's for the best than making the CHF redundant. It's a stinking fudge but that's what they do, right ?
At best, we'll see something like MM4's proposal. When is the new RW Strategy due to be published ?