"a change of aircraft type should only improve this effectiveness"
Interesting to compare that comment with the views of many of the guys I knew who were on the Commando squadrons back in the early 1980's. They were in the middle of the transition from Wessex 5 to Sea King 4,. (from memory 846 was SK4, 845 Wessex 5 though I may have that the wrong way round) Almost universally they felt that despite the improved performance, the change was retrograde. Why? Three reasons:
1) You could mount a range of rockets guns and missile on a Wessex 5, turning it into a gunship and giving it a significant degree of self defence.. The SK4 was lacking in the required wiring,
2) The Wessex 5 was more reliable and less likely to break (and easier to fix)
3) In their words, the Wessex 5 was "squaddie proof"
I'm relaying this second-hand, its not from personal experience but I find it interesting that a perceived "upgrade" may not really be so.