MoD had a secret (and unlawful) plan to artificially help AW/L
In all my years, including many dealing with Westland, I was only instructed to favour a stated company twice. The first, in 1992, was when my boss, a retired Army officer, told me to cancel Litton OMEGA contracts and award them forthwith to his new next door neighbour, whom he'd chatted to in the pub the night before and ran a one man and his dog company near Heathrow. OK, two men, sharing one rented office. The last time, in 2001, after a programme was delivered early, under cost and to a better spec, I was criticised for not cancelling the contracts on the point of completion, and starting all over again with a certain French company; denying the RN capability for at least 5 years. Chief of Defence Procurement concurred. Their UK base was in the Minister for Defence Procurement's constituency, but I'm sure that was coincidence and had nothing to do with the decision to award them contracts without even bidding.
I'm happy to say Westland never once let me down, and can think of quite a few examples of MoD awarding contracts to others, only for Westland to dig us/them out. Puma Nav Update in the 90s was one.