Some Thoughts
Well this has been an interesting thread. Crab, as usual, brings to the table his clear and often well thought out views of which of course, there are always alternative perspectives - whether its analysing the statistics differently or just plain having different views on how best to do the job of providing the UK with a top class SAR helo service.
The 12 hour standby of two RAF flights is a sad reflection in my view of how low a priority this (miltary) capability has become since the lack of a proper defence budget impinges on our operational needs and tasks as presently defined. While there may be an undercurrent of SAR force neglect inherent in some of those serving in the MOD (and there is!!), I do sympathise with the wider need to support our people in Afghanistan with the right kit and people - its a shame we ain't doin that as well as we could either given the lack of leadership and money some years ago! I have never accepted that our helo:troop ratio should be so low (although not equivalent to the Yanks - thats overkill) and its a testament to our combined failure to sort this over 30 years that has now been fully exposed in this aggressive operational campaign - goodness knows we had plenty of indicators - just read the helo availability lessons from Borneo, NI, FI and GW1 - so its no suprise that UK SAR gets to suffer its share of underresourcing in the cirucmstances - sad but true!
Now guys - what is sacrosant about 12 bases (the present lot)? - )or for that matter them all being located on the seaside? - a 1950s idea for sure!! - in my view absolutely nothing - nor is Crab's argument that if neccessary an innovative approach to rebasing to best encompass op demand and optimise base/ac numbers and types would have been too expensive. The sad reality is that this approach has been prevented under the SAR-H procurement requirements - and ask yourself what politics has driven us into that hole. This only leads industry to seek solutions that are "conventional" as any interpretation of the UK SAR-H approach is that it is "low risk", wants to avoid controversy, and certainly is not open to providing a truely innovatve and best value for money approach to taking UK SAR helos foprward for the next 30 odd years. Any of the 4 original Bidders' approaches had to account for this as they no doubt strived to bring their proposal in on budget and time - some chose to leave the competition as a result
We could spend days debating Crab's valuable point that reorganising and re-equipping the UK Mil SARF with new ac etc would be more cost effective - I support that view myself despite the realpolitic we have faced in MoD SAR, and more importantly it would allow military planners a better view point (if they only opened their minds!) to UK homeland defence and the use of a large number of capable all weather helos sat around the UK at readiness - see other thread re MPs report on Uk coastal defence for example!! This debate has not been helped by the lack of SH and the ongoing MoD internal politics and policy that deployed ops always have priority for resources of any sort - hence the untimley demise of the UK mil SARF to a PFI - this is a fundamentally flawed policy in my view but not surprising in the circumstances.
As for the availability arguments from the 3 remaining bases to cover Chiv - well with a modern fast all weather ac this is a variable debate depending on which angle you look at the argument from. Given that the UK's primary SAR helo requirement is to arrive on top of any incident in less than 1 hour ( and there maybe arguments for having reduced this - at a cost!) (and excepting the long ditsance ones always take longer of course!) - then statistics will support the reduction in night time cover or numbers of bases at some locations depending also on crew/ac availability at the remaining bases. As Crab himself says - just because historic statistics show "hot spots" doesn't neccessarily mean we should co-locate a SAR flt next door in the future - particulary if you are trying to deliver a nationwide service where everyone, anywhere has an "equal" chance of a SAR helo (and backups) arriving in given time limits. (PS Crab - how many of your recent night jobs were in the near vicinty of Chiv (say 50nm radius)). Often as not - we now live in a politically motivated grandtanding world where no local politician will allow a local flight to close or be moved - as they simply don't want to wrap their minds around the "national capability" debate as there is no mileage in it for them nor is there a well thought out wider government policy to support such changes.
Finally, it will be interesting to see where the SAR-H process and decisions go in the near future - an impending election and lack of government money and the continuing turmoil in the banking sector must be creating some interesting situations in decision making board rooms - almost as I write.
Cheers
and best wishes to all those who continue to do a really significant and important flying job - all those elements of the UK SAR helo force!!
Last edited by Tallsar; 16th Aug 2009 at 10:39.