It's worth remembering that the announcement was made by Philip Hammond, Secretary of State for Transport, not by the good Dr Fox - because it's all about the Maritime & Coastguard Agency's (MCA) cash IIRC. So if Dept for Transport (DfT) are the ones paying the bill, then the higher costs of MoD doing it for them will be very unattractive, even if it provides MoD with some positive
PR / baseline CSAR capability / flex for SH / <<insert positive MoD point here>>.
I was - and remain - very sceptical of PFI in the forces (FSTA, anyone?); and I hate the idea of SAR being all civil (always happy to see big yellow taxi over Suffolk knowing that the best possible help is on the way). It's not rational - I'm sure the same guys in civvie suits would do a good job (eg FRL EW training) - but I want it to stay two shades of blue.
However.
If contractorisation is significantly cheaper and takes care of the capital spend on new cabs now (obviously more expensive long term), then DfT would only go down the mil-SAR route if the MoD matched the cost to DfT of a contractor solution - by MoD subsidising the costs, presumably.
Which given the state of the MoD budget is NOT going to happen. As has been said, we'd all like a 24 cab buy of Merlin SAR Mk. 4 (or whatever - like the shiney Canadian ones), but what are you prepared to cut furhter in the MoD to pay for it?
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