Must confess that, even after a decade on Pumas, that I had some reservations about upgrading a 40-year-old airframe. However, the feedback from QHIs/QHCIs who've recently completed Puma 2 groundschool has been overwhelmingly positive; its performance - particularly hot and high - is a quantum leap ahead of the HC.1, whilst the cockpit makes old technophobes like me just a tad nervous!
So, whether Puma 2 survives or not, massive credit is definitely due to the Puma 2 Fielding Team, who've clearly performed miracles within very tight financial and technical constraints. Cheers, ladies and gents... Oh, and - please - no more of this ridiculous talk of Wildcat being a suitable partial replacement. In terms of interior space and usable payload - forget it!