Crab
RAF effectively does have OpCon over all the SAR helos.
Long been an admirer of yours considering the flack that comes your way but you handle it so well, but on the above I suggest your wrong.
The 4 CG operation rooms who have S92 and AW139 have complete operational control over their repective a/c out to a radius distance of 30nm from their respective helo bases. We attempt to keep ARCCK informed but depending on how busy the control room is, will on occasions impart a delay in passing this information.
ARCCK has on occasions requested an AW139 from Lee-on-Solent or Portland to be turned down by the SMC (SAR Mission Co-ordinator) who has the bigger picture as to what is happening in his/her area at any given time.
Given these 2 accurate senarios the RAF cannot have OpCon over all SAR helo's.
Spr