The replacement for the Westland Puma helicopter

[McColm]

 The ministry of defence has announced that the Westland Puma  HC.2 will be retiring soon and they are looking for the replacement.
The specifications so far are a twin engined, medium range helicopter. Naturally the NH90 has been proposed but due to reliability issues and the Super Puma with it's different versions hasn't been ruled out either.
Whether or not the Blackhawk will enter service with the Royal Air Force remains to be seen.
Time to dust off the Rotodyne or the AugustaWestland AW609 tilt wing rotocraft.
This is open to all types of whiffery.

[AeroplaneDriver]

It seems the AW149 is the frontrunner because it would secure jobs at Yeovil. 

As you say though, lots of Whiffery potential.  A few extras for the RN might not be a bad idea too to free up the limited Merlin fleet from general utility jobs like planeguard. 

[Mossie]

Sikorsky S-92? The ramp would give some versatility.

[PR19_Kit]

The Merlin's always seemed well OTT for the plane guard duty, I'm amazed they didn't sort that out by the time the two carriers had been 'launched'.

[Howard of Effingham]

The Merlin's always seemed well OTT for the plane guard duty, I'm amazed they didn't sort that out by the time the two carriers had been 'launched'.

Given the RAF Merlins required enough 'navalisation' work to get them seaworthy.... was there ever a major UK military aircraft programme that went 100% smoothly Kit ever? 

[kitnut617]

Sikorsky S-92? The ramp would give some versatility.

The RAF's Merlin HC3's had ramps, like our Cormorants. They were all handed over to the Royal Navy Simon --- And the S-92 is just as big as a Merlin. Canada's military operate both types, CH-148 Cyclone and CH-149 Cormorant.

If you want to read up on this, there's a very long thread on SPF running. Probably where McColm got this thread idea from ------

[PR19_Kit]

.... was there ever a major UK military aircraft programme that went 100% smoothly Kit ever? 

The Hawker Hart and its derivatives went pretty well, or so I'm told anyway.