During the Afghan business, we received an offer of 60 UH-60’s.
US manufactured helicopters could have helped to plug dangerous shortage facing British troops in Afghanistan
www.theguardian.com
if you want to go back even further, Merlin was a political decision, forced on HM armed forces by Heseltine an ardent EUrophile who had visions of taking over the medium helicopter market from Sikorsky. The Blackhawk was expected to be a shoo in, so much so that Westland had bought a licence and tooled up for production.
well, 200 Merlins and 5,000 Blackhawks later, that didn’t work out quite as Heseltine hoped.
and the JMSDF Merlins? A strange decision, mired in controversy and corruption.
the SH-60 met the requirement, but lost out when a VSO started pushing for the EH101.