An amazing amount of ignorance on this thread and some serious naivety too. If you take the trouble of looking on the Rotorheads forum to read up on anything to do with Helicopters, all your questions will be answered.
However, to speed that process up:
Bristows are steeped in SAR. The facility is in very good hands. To question the capabilities of civvy SAR crews is crass, incompetent and above all ignorant. They have been doing it for decades and many are ex mil.
RAF MRS is NOT going.......................yet Same with the ARCC.
Mil SAR is way past its shelf life. Recent stats going back years, show their recoveries are predominently 97% civvy based. Mil SAR crews dream of downed mil aircrew!
RN SAR will continue as normal. Theirs is a secondary role...always has been always will be. All RN crews are SAR capable, it's just that the RAF made it an empire. Future RN SAR will be covered by Lynx/Merlin.
The new SAR cabs are faster, cheaper, stronger, safer, more reliable.
The old SK was 1:10hrs ratio of airborne to downtime.
The S92 is 1: 4.
Each current RAF SAR base houses 20-30 engineers. The new bases will have 6-8 engineers because that is all that is needed.
Mil SAR is not a war billet. There is no room in the new lean fighting machine for a respite squadron(s).
Medals for the civvies? Could be down to the fact that they don't have admin officers / bureaucrats whose sole aim in life is to award LS and GC medals. Could be down to civvies having tighter safety rules (CAA) than the mil (who still be its very nature has the word "attrition" in its dictionary).
Could be down to lack of
PR reps in the civvy world.
Definitely NOT down to avoiding "diabolical conditions".
This is a 21st century capability designed and futureproofed for a 21st century Britain - embrace it.
Almost ALL of the new pilots required to make this work will be the ex SAR drivers/crewmen. Win, win.
[I am NOT a Bristow employee
]