First of all I’ll treat all the usual RAF vs RN point scoring comments with the contempt they deserve!
oh dear Biggus! Didn't mean to offend either, I'm guessing that you weren't 'one of us' who did SAR then?
Medevacs, or Hospital to Hospital transfers were always charged for in my day, £4500 ph for a SK I believe. It always seemed like an anomally to me since the 'exhausted walker in flip flops' didn't get charged but hey, I didn't make the rules
I agree about the smoke and mirrors used by the politicians to justify reducing assets, the same tactics were used by MOD when they closed Manston, Colt, Brawdy and Leuchars and actually said that the coverage was increased by removing a third of the flights. A bit like the MCA improving coverage by reducing the number of MRCC's. We've just got to be grateful that the RNLI and Civ MRT's are not Govt funded.