Some good points in there Evalu8ter......seen those arguments rehearsed quite a few times before and they remain sadly pertinent.
The only issue I'd take with you is about moving on to CSAR. It was not the fault of the RAF SARF that it was bypassed in any move to generate a UK CSAR capablity..(which has now withered on the vine anyway!)...there was a real push at various levels to do precisely that...starting from our involvement in the Falklands in '82,and frquent particpation in CS&R & AWC exercises. Its apogee of course was '97 when 2 cabs were despatched to the States as part of the big UK/US joint warfare exercise at the time...it was hard work...and created some signifcant problems to keep UK SAR going simultneously Unfortunately it backfired when SDR98 appeared as several key MoD players (incldung some from within the SH Force) were determined to marginalise the SARF for several reasons...thus the scene was set...and RN/RAF SAR did not join the JHC (as it should have done IMO)...and all might then have been very different...
There has always been a proportion of the RAF SARF that rather enjoys just doing the job (and very professionally!) and remain on the margins of the "combat" RAF....and no doubt they sent their CVs to Soteria as soon as Preferred Bidder was announced. However, since the arrival of the SK all those years ago, there has always been a good cross section of ex SH, and younger aircrew who would have been able to adapt very enthusiastically and competently to any deployable role had that been sent their way.....Shame it never happened ..as you say...
Last edited by Tallsar; 20th Dec 2010 at 12:05.