Re Airwave cost savings
Come on, boys & girls, I always believed one of the "P"s in PPRUNE stood for professional, not purile?
The airwave bills might reduce if some (quite a few) officers on the ground didn't talk into the air, rather than their microphones, when communicating. Methinks they seldom realise how impossible they are to understand.
Whilst control-room operatives have a headset mic, and normally listen to just one talk-group at a time, they can often make out what is being whispered. With up to seven inputs into an NPAS helmet, and regularly 2 or 3 at the same time (if one is actually being professional, of course) repeating transmissions will un-necessarily increase Airwave transmissions.