Oh Plus Merde
Where does this leave the whole programme?
Given the cost of bidding and the time taken to set up the competition, I would have thought just about everybody involved would be pretty (descriptive expletives deleted) annoyed with the MOD.
Presumably the current arrangements will have to run on for a further number of years, with tired old Sea King getting ever more tired.
I'm just waiting for somebody to say that there are so few military aircraft likely to crash that the risk of the crew landing in the sea is so small that the military don't need an SAR capability and the crew can be left bobbin about in the oggin 'till a passing trawler picks them up.
Drifting slightly off thread, the following story is recounted in "The Strider", the magazine of the Long Distance Walking Association. Walker/climber calls 999 and gives map reference where they are in extremis. Call centre says 'don't know about map references, what's the post code'?
O-D