Originally Posted by
Archimedes
The poster in question on Arrse is PPrune's own Magic Mushroom (not seen lately around here). He'd have been, if memory serves, a tad distracted by incoming mortar fire at the time of the trials, so his memory of them (as he has accepted) was incorrect - because it was a green airframe, he'd assumed it was an RAF Merlin with an Italian KC-130.
I'd respectfully suggest that you've misinterpreted his argument, Chopper - the fount of knowledge problem is the (former?) Merchant Navy (or possibly RFA) contributor who comments on all matters armoured, aviating and maritime. MM's point is that V-22 isn't endorsed, and given that the CHF's cab (if not the cabs themselves) have undertaken AAR trials, and given that studies were done into this in terms of Merlin for JPR - I don't know how far they got, but I was asked for (very, very minor) input, so someone was definitely thinking about it - wouldn't that be a more obvious first step than going out and attempting to buy V-22s for an AAR-capable capability?
Meerkatz is ex Merchant Navy.