Bertie - do you think the CAA would let that happen now though? They still won't let D&C Police operate into unrecced sites despite their experience levels.
Eric - the rescuing of downed/ejected military crews is our primary task but only counts for about 2% of our rescues which are, as you rightly say otherwise civilian in nature.
The UK Search and Rescue Region is enormous, reaching way out into the Atlantic where, for the moment, only the military crews go because we have better range than the S61. The Government is responsible for providing maritime and aeronautical SAR assets in whichever way it sees fit and has, for many years, taken the option of using the military to provide the majority of this cover. The SRR includes the landmass of the UK which is primarily covered by military SAR as well.
If you want as right, riveting read, have a look at the IAMSAR manual - the bible of modern SAR - and note that in volume 1 it states that military assets provide very effective SAR cover due to manpower and poor weather/night capability.
Rumour has it that a major player in the civvySAR world didn't even know what IAMSAR was
