Crab, you make some valid points. However, I guess they will all be irrelevant by 2017. My guess is that by then there will be no Mil FI SAR requirement (probably no FI deployments)and the 66 Mil SAR personnel will be reduced to zero as it is finally recognised that the SAR skills necessary for SH and OOA operations can be met by the current helicopter training system. These unpalatable decisions will be forced on the military because of the lack of money available for Defence and the RAF will give up peripheral activities. This is not the cynic in me saying this but a pragmatic view of where we are. I understand that such thoughts are not new to those in power and it is only a matter of time.