Cougar deliveries are continuing with Kuwait just taking some. Clearly some operators are unfased by the gearbox issue. In many ways the gearbox issue is no different to other aircraft problems over the years. Other than bolt on specialist kit there is nothing special about the 330 except maybe the acc drive.
The civil 330J were built on the same line as the military aircraft. In fact from a civil perspective the EC 225 and the 332's are all variants of the 330. They are all on the same type certificate. In the end it depends on what you want it to do. Further up the thread it is suggested that the 330 is low in the queue for replacement.
A 225 would work as a direct 330 replacement. If you are looking for more bells and whistles then it will wait in the queue beyond the higher priorities. Nothing happens in the MOD in a hurry so I think that any window to do this will close and we will be looking at the next generation of logging aircraft.
Last edited by ericferret; 29th May 2017 at 09:04.