Of course, in an even-more-ideal world, the Navy would sail all of the ships and boats, the Army would drive all of the vehicles and fight on the ground, while the Air Force would do all the flying.
With the risk of thread drift, the above is utter b****cks. Why would the so called
make the RAF the Air Operating Authority of choice for operations from the sea? They have neither the will nor interest to be such a beast and is why the FAA was wrested from their grips in the late 1930s and has been the status quo ever since.
Unchecked, the real reason the Merlins are going to CHF is because there is no more money(well certainly not for a new type), Defence has come down on the side of amphibious capability and carrier enabled strike), the CHF are currently the lead operators in this environment, the RN is the AOA thus CHF is to survive. QED.