I think the Americans were a long way ahead of the RN when it came to helo SAR and, as Eric said, the RN weren't the first to use NVG in the brit mil - they might have been the first to use them on operations which is quite a different thing and lots of things were strapped onto aircraft without much thought in the FI.
Having used Gen 3/4 tubes in the FI (unlike most RN pilots) the nights are very, very dark and gen 1 tubes (of the sort they would have had in 1982) would have been of little use and probably lulled crews into a false sense of security.
Strange though that having 'invented' NVG in 1982, it took another 25 years to introduce them to RN SAR - is this because the RN SAR weren't as good as the junglies or just because SAR is seen as a backwater rest tour so no special equipment or training is required?
Not much of an advert for a new professional SAR service in UK aiming for a seamless transition with no loss of capability - depends on whose capability you are comparing the new service with I suppose
