Can somebody, please, just make an announcement about the future of of the Puma Force. Too many good people are hanging onto the promise of a future here.
And as for those who are using this issue to push single-service agendas, get a fecking life. The only service which has the potential to move SH forward is the RAF - fact. Having done a (very enjoyable) tour with the AAC I know they would be overwhelmed and massively undermanned (can you really see the requisite blue-suiters swapping for brown suits - really?).
The AAC do very good work in theatre, and long may that continue. Why mess with that. The CHF, hopefully, will develop a a very useful future capability with the Merlin. Who benefits from a bonfire of JHC - no one..
I would hope that the unrelenting diminishment of UK Defence capability would bottom out soon. Let us not "self-hack" by doing each other over - don't comply with the efforts of those who wish to divide and conquer.