Willatlantis - no need for an agressive reaction - you make some valid points.
The big problem with trying to prove that SARH is cost effective is that no-one has actually done the sums determine the cost of Military SAR. This should have been the starting point for the process because how else can you show that the new contract is value for money.
All the arguments for privatisation seem sensible but they are mostly an application of apparent common sense and are not based on hard facts.
At present the remaining bidders are trying hard to pare costs to get in under the £5bn mark which is not small potatoes when it comes to public finances especially at the moment.
As for the Gnome - we have one failure (OTG trip in the hover) in the last God knows how many 1000's of flying hours and we wouldn't do what we do without faith in the engines.
If your lifeboat crews have gone from S61 to 139 then they will be South coast guys who won't have seen a yellow SAR cab for many years and are hardly in a position to compare
