.... a fixed-wing aircraft will take at least twice if not three times as long as a helicopter to take off, and this might mean that it is more suited to tasks requiring long flying durations than those requiring an immediate response.....
How do they know that?
The Chief Pilot was, I understand, based at an International Airport in Manchester where time to gain access to the runway will have been long. I understand that at Teesside - and you can ditto that at Doncaster - it was so quiet that take-off times were short.
And this takes us to the point .... they have not flown fixed wing for a couple of years, how do they know? No plan, no tactics and no interim aircraft. There are a couple EO/IR equipped P68 out there they could have on lease.... OK they are not identical or IFR but they could have been doing something with them. Like flying over Norwich chasing hares....
Meanwhile the pilots for the as yet undelivered [or certified] P68 aircraft are on their 900th game of Kaluki....