how much the present annual costs of the RAF, RN and Coastguard services are in 2009
Tallsar
Much of what you say makes sense, but sooner or later the issue of reducing units to 12 hour cover will bite. If one night 6 years from now, Culdrose are on a job and Lee's aircraft is broken, there will be nothing available to cover the south of England including the Channel south of Wattisham and Valley. Gloucester floods, anyone?
On the issue of current SAR costs, you ignore the issue of the mil often having two aircraft available per base - this capability has been degraded recently, but if push came to shove crews would be found for the spare aircraft (as has happened frequently when big jobs have come in after 2nd Standby had finished for the night).
The SAR-H combination of reducing the total number of aircraft and reducing the hours which some units are available will sooner or later turn a drama into a crisis - I firmly believe that what we have now, while far from perfect, is a better solution than what is proposed. Which units are you going to send to Cumbria if last night's flooding happens again in 10 years? Lossiemouth? Wattisham?
And although in some incidents, other means of rescue would make do, you may regret saying that if it's ever you stuck in agony on a cliff waiting for ropes to be set up to get you, then being carried a long way over uneven ground in a stretcher to a distant air ambulance...