Adroight - our search and rescue region is 1 million square miles - we have 68 Million people and an enormous amount of coastline to look after. Add in varing environments from the North Sea to the mountainous areas of Wales and Scotland and the mobile and ever changing weather systems and the UK, as whole, presents more variations on SAR missions than most other countries.
llamaman - we don't need all S 92s since some locations won't often need the range or carrying capacity but to limit the working area in the cabin short changes both the crews and those they rescue. Someone will have to consider what aircraft they will use for ECMOs and other med transfers that require more space in the cabin - they won't get done by AA (too small) and it might mean diverting a S92 out of area - so that won't happen either.
No lesser capable a service was what was touted at the beginning, but that isn't what we are going to get, despite all the blather about faster helicopters.