Britain's next medium helicopters

[McColm]

 There are plans to replace the Westland Puma helicopter HC.2 ,Bell 412 Griffin, Bell 212 and the Airbus AS365 Dauphin in service with the Royal Air Force/ British Army either in current service or they have been retired.
Up to 44 medium lift helicopters will be required, there was three contenders; Airbus with the H175M, Leonardo AW149 and Sikrosky S-70M Black Hawk.
Airbus and Sikrosky have pulled out of the competition leaving only Leonardo.

In the whiffing world I have two alternatives the Westland White Hart ( Mil-24 Hind) and the Westland Sea Knight. The Sea Knight might be considered too big for a medium sized helicopter but the Mil-24 Hind is still being built along with the Mil-25 an updated version. Eurocopter Super Puma and many others to choose from which would make an interesting topic.

[Weaver]

I don't think the Hind would be considered viable for the requirement: it's passenger volume is quite limited. The Mil Mi-17 Hip would be a better fit, although the basic technology is old (and therefore expensive and maintenance heavy to run) and it's somewhat too large.

What I said back before they opted to rebuild the RAF Pumas with Super-Puma engines in order to put off the decision for another 10 years, was that they should start buying Super-Pumas in small batches, build up an OCU, and then re-equip one Puma squadron at a time, replacing the Pumas in descending order of airframe hours. I still think that would have been a good plan.

[jcf]

Airbus and Sikorsky(Lockheed-Martin) basically backed out because the planned buy was too small to justify the expense of developing a variant to meet the UK requirements. Of course, it's possible that the entire program will be canceled.

[PR19_Kit]

Of course, it's possible that the entire program will be canceled.

That's a possibility with ANY UK defence programme, no matter the political flavour in power at the time. 

[jcf]

Of course, it's possible that the entire program will be canceled.

That's a possibility with ANY UK defence programme, no matter the political flavour in power at the time. 

Especially when it's something that's been kicked down the road a few times as the government changes. Canada has a history of doing the same kind of stuff.

[Weaver]

Of course, it's possible that the entire program will be canceled.

That's a possibility with ANY UK defence programme, no matter the political flavour in power at the time. 

Especially at the moment...('nuff said).