Originally Posted by
Same again
My bet is that it will return to the military as no civil helicopter company could ever afford it now. The past 6 weeks has proven that public coffers are evidently bottomless so perhaps Bristow will get some Government assistance to continue.
That's a bit like national service. The military has no appetite for it, neither has the public and if it ever happens then it is a generation or more down the line. We would have to be taking a far broader attitude to national defence than we do now.
The last contract was set out in two lots with a third lot, as in the winning bid, encompassing both lots. It seems likely that lot structure will happen again although it's not certain. The transition-out plan is certainly laid out in that way.
It is certainly a worry that so many of the usual suspects have had serious financial woes or lost interest or both during the last few years. In continues to annoy me greatly, as it probably does other ppruners, that those usual suspects once blossomed and thrived under the leadership of people who could fly but now that they are run by the MBA's they flit from one financial disaster to the next.
However, Bristow maintains the Alan Bristow rescue ethos and if that is not apparent to you now then I suspect it may become so across the next five years or so. That makes them, along with their new friend, still a player.
A few others, even from amongst the injured, maintain just enough technical and commercial weight to pick up one lot, whether alone or with partners.
Ask BIH and NHV if they'd like a piece of the action.
It is of course possible that the 'big bruiser' crowd will get a piece of the action. The likes of Lockheed Martin, when they're not too busy bossing governments around
, might see it as prestige contract and simply employ some riff-raff contractor who actually knows what he's doing
to make the day-to-day stuff happen.
Splitting it between contractors might cause a increased problems with the practicalities of providing the 'Common Standard of Service' that featured in the Post Implementation Review of the current service. That is something that might be easier to fix if the CAA took more interest in setting standards for SAR Tech Crew, which also featured in the PIR.