It certainly appears the future of the Puma may have been secured, at the expense of the Merlin (in RAF service). I wonder if this has been the master plan all along...by that I mean that that the Air Staff were probably certain that the Merlin was going to the dark blue, given that it had already been announced in the House. They resisted and denied it was a 'done deal', even though, to most other observers, it appeared to be 'done'.
I suspect that this was simply being used as a bargaining chip to keep the Puma, as in 'We can't afford to lose the Merlin - we need a medium support platform (knowing full well it was going to the RN) - if you take it away from us, then we MUST retain the Puma(II) or our helo-lift capability (the subject of much press) will be compromised...'. The RAF heirachy, in my opinion, knew the Merlin was going, and actually wanted to retain both it, and Puma II, but knew this was financially unviable, so they played a game with the merlin, in order to ensure they at least got the Puma.
I know loads of merlin pilots, and they all say 'let the navy have the thing, they have no idea how completely crap they are for junglie ops - good riddance.'
Please do not misunderstand - they mourn the loss of the role, and the Sqn's, and the ethos, capability and drive that have made 28 and 78 such superb Sqn's, but the Cab is the epitome of the 'polished turd', and they all know it.
Navy - you are superb operators and deserve the very best replacement for the venerable 'Queen'. I can assure you that the Merlin is not it. Your professionalism and ethos will ensure you make of it what you can, but it will be you who are papering the cracks and making do, rather than the aircraft allowing you to fulfill your full operational potential.
A mate who is a current merlin QHI (with 2000hrs+ on it) recently told a group of us that is was ' on most levels, a step backwards from the Wessex, two steps forward in terms of speed, and nine backwards in reliability'.
Enjoy the thing navy, and do what you can - but don't expect Seaking levels of usefulness - you won't get them.