I think that in high threat littoral environments – all the proposal does is indicate the short commings of a helicopter to stand on patrol (cost effectively in terms of logictics tail and man hours), putting a slow man air vehcile in harms way….

Helicopters are great searching in the wide ocean for submarines, or being under the fighter/missile umberella to carry stuff from ship to ship or ship to shore.

The operational requirements beg the questions – do we need speed, do we need persistance, do we need to intervine and do we have crew to some of these tasks?? if the asnwer is yes – then that must change things.