This thread seems to have wandered off into the bushes somehow... but harking back to the original premise, I wondered if anyone agreed with any of the following...
The taxpayer bankrolls about 800 helicopters in the UK, many of which are useless for anything but shoot-em-ups, but this fact makes it difficult to argue that the tiny number which are engaged in saving life are "not worth public money."
Would it be possible to set the military to work in the public service? (When they're not out killing all the cows that is). They have machines aplenty to do such work, and much of it would constitute excellent training... medivac work in the middle of London, perhaps, and if they wanted verisimilitude we could always hire someone to shoot at them while they were at it.