the majority of historic casualty locations will receive an on top helo not only in less that an hour but most in half the time of the present service
(my italics)
Tallsar,
Sorry if I'm being thick (maths never being my strong suit!), but how do you arrive at this conclusion? 140 kts isn't twice the speed of a Sea King - in fact it's barely 20% faster.
And of course you're right that
all coastal areas of where there is much activity of any sort deserve the same level of response - 12 bases at 24 hr readiness doesn't achieve that and nor did 16
...but 16 was better than 12, and 12 is better than 9! This is the kind of logic which leads to the suggestion of having one SAR base near Derby with half a dozen or so Ospreys...
TOTD