Look at West Cumbria and Derek Bird....(and then they used the Firearms guys from Windscale and an RAF SAR cab).
OPERATION BRIDGE
PEER REVIEW INTO THE RESPONSE OF CUMBRIA CONSTABULARY
FOLLOWING THE ACTIONS OF DERRICK BIRD ON 2nd JUNE 2010.
No mention of Police helicopters carrying firearms teams, however;
Coincidentally that day, the BBC was filming an episode of “Helicopter Heroes” with the Yorkshire Air ambulance. This air ambulance service was deployed to West Cumbria as a result of the murders that occurred and in doing so, the BBC camera crew were conveyed straight to the scene of the incident.
The weather was a hinderance for any other helicopters to get into the area, BBC film crews I guess is ok, but I wonder what the moral issues of air ambulances ferrying around firearms teams would have been?
Armed response arrangements
In common with other forces of a similar demographic nature, Cumbria Constabulary’s ARV’s are not deployed solely on firearms related duties. On a day to day basis their main duties relate to roads policing. The vehicles are however also equipped as ARV’s crewed by Authorised Firearms Officers (AFO).
In addition, for a police helicopter to ferry a firearms team from its 'ready state', it would probably have to dump around 200 kgs of fuel.
How many units could readily do that?
So to have a go at NPAS in the Norway scenario is IMHO a bit below the belt, however, highlighting where West Cumbria is in the 20 minute circle plan might be above.