1helicopterppl
Are you confusing contracts?
I said (always accepting that I could be wrong) that the S92 is probably an overkill for what the MOD is hoping to spend on the SH/SAR contract.
But LZ was talking about Bristow winning the O&G contract. For that the S92 would make a lot of sense and I was told that is what the customer wanted all along. That contract also had a AWSAR element in its original form.
(That isn't necessarily as ridiculous as might seem. The offshore SAR contract needs range, high capacity for 19+2 survivors, but maritime only. The BFFI SAR cab is for 2 stretchered survivors only, wouldn't have to be ultra long range, but would require overland and NVG training. So a big enough difference to result in different requirements for type, equipment and training and stop the cheque writers in Aberdeen and MOD from ever talking)
Two totally different contracts.
.......or maybe not. Maybe O&G and MOD ( and FI Gov) did do the sensible thing and talked
A combined bid for the two contracts would reduce the SAR element, support and service costs for the O&G customer and maybe lower the SH/SAR costs sufficiently for MOD to have the aircraft that they really need for the BFFI contract ( yes 1helicopterppl...S92
)