Another interesting quote from his statement today...
'The RAF and Royal Navy will continue to provide coverage from their SAR bases as at present, while I consider the options for the long-term provision of SAR helicopter capability.
'I will inform the House later in the year of the government’s intentions for the longer term. The procurement strategy we adopt for the longer term will seek to ensure that the Ministry of Defence is able to complete its previously announced intention to withdraw its Sea Kings from service in 2016.'
...implies that whatever the longer term strategy might be there wont be a huge lead in time to get a full civilian service up & running by 2016.
Is acquiring new airframes in the numbers needed in that sort of timescale realistic?
Is acquiring suitably trained crews in the numbers needed in that sort of timescale realistic also?
As I understood it the Soteria transition was phased for these reasons & should have started about now in order to allow for the Sea King's demise in 2016. It will be an interesting bit of procurement & project management to replicate that in a significantly shorter timescale whether or not the longer term contract is for 5, 10 or 25 yrs.
More interesting times ahead
