Al-bert -
TOTD - the problem was that SAR and CSAR are two completely different animals (something not really understood by the upper management) and that the serviceability levels of the yellow Sea King force were just incompatible with deployed ops - just manning the Falklands was a massive drain on resources and manpower let alone attempting anything else.
You want to deploy a force that has just 23 aircraft (of which 6 are a different mark thanks to other crap decisions) and a commitment to 6 full time SAR bases, each required to provide 2 aircraft every day, plus an OCU with a 3 line program plus depth servicing and modification programs and 2 aircraft in the Falklands - where the f*** do the assets come from?
It's like so many military tasks - given the right resources anything is possible however, back-of-a-fag packet plans can work for limited periods but are unsustainable in anything but the short term.....something else our military and political masters have failed to learn
BTW - i don't think pulling circuit breakers on a Mk 3 at night over the water ever became an unremarkable event!!