Charlie(Colorado) ó Perfectly understandable techspeak… but to translate:

The upgrade of the H-1 does not provide sufficient improvement over the old model to make it competitve with the HH-60 (the navalized version of the UH-60 Blackhawk the Air Force, Army and Navy already fly. So continuing to try to improve the H-1 is a classic case of putting lipstick on a pig. Also, having one service fly a separate system when there is no pressing need for it complicates logistics and acquisitions decisions and raises costs.

The external stores pylons (ESSS) mean you can convert a cargo craft into a useful helicopter gunship. While this may not be as good as a dedicated gunship, it gives the commander on the scene the option of dramatically increasing his local ground-attack airsupport, most of which is still provided by aging Sea Cobra helicopters.

ASN is Assistant Secretary of the Navy, OpEval is an operational evaluation designed to test a system for its use in a specific mission, and the politicking Jerry described is total Washington. “The UH-60 is not suited to the gunship mission.” “Did you test that?” “Uhhh…. um… ah! No, because the UH-60 is unsuited for the gunship mission…”