Brilliant
Banter to Tourist (albeit a tad harsh) rather than slagging!
Undoubtedly at cost to the nerves of the Puma and Merlin personnel and families, CAS and his team have played a blinder. Taking an aircraft that was by all accounts just about to get get binned before Christmas, and then playing a 'game' of Russian roulette to delay the final handing over the RN Merlin long enough (and we still have a few more years in Afghan up our sleeve to add to the delay in transfer if required). This will ensure that Puma cockpits are saved, and then look to remove through a
PR activity (the inferior, sub optimal and pretty crap) Merlin to allow the Puma and Chinook to deliver all of the lift for all environments.
Now that is some very gutsy staff work and senior leadership indeed - well done those involved. With the Chinook new buys and Puma II cockpits safe we should be able to look after ourselves and manage the transition out of Merlin (which looks as though it is now the one for the scrap heap). We get the new shiney bits of kit, with more capability and less hours on the airframe and the RN (if they survive) get the white elephant that we always knew Merlin was, but kept us cockpit seats after Wessex.
All we have to do is play along for a few more years and then (if Merlin is still with us) at the next review bye bye CHF. Well, not quite as it is rumoured that our boss at JHC has promised that he will look after the RN crews and they will be absorbed into the wider JHC community to ensure that the maritime experience can be passed on to us. We certainly do not want to push out our HQs for a 6 month O Boat experience when CHF can do it for us!
It is beginning to make a lot of sense just to put all rotary wing back under one organisation and CGS and CNS do not really have the right qualifications or experience to be proper SDHs, so the logic suggests that it is CAS and the air specialists.