End of line for military rescue heroes

Transport Secretary Justine Greening told the Commons that civilian contractors will take over responsibility for all search and rescue operations in Britain.

The government hopes to award the new contract under its privatisation plans early in 2013.

The Ministry of Defence operates a fleet of Sea King helicopters from eight military bases in the UK, including RAF Lossiemouth in Moray and HMS Gannet at Prestwick – two stations that have been at the centre of scores of life-saving operations in Scotland since the Sea Kings first came into service in 1978.

The service’s military pilots include the Duke of Cambridge.

In February, the controversial privatisation plans were put on hold after it was revealed that commercially sensitive information relating to the bid process had fallen into the hands of CHC Helicopters, part of the preferred bidder, the Soteria Consortium, which had also included Sikorsky, French defence group Thales and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The privatisation deal was due to replace the ageing Sea Kings with state-of-the-art Sikorsky S-92 choppers.

Ms Greening said a fresh search had begun for private companies to take over the search and rescue operations in a new UK-wide service contract.

“The introduction of a modern fleet of fast, reliable helicopters will lead to major improvements in the capability available from the present mix of helicopters,” she said.

“Modern helicopters operating from ten full-time bases can not only continue to meet all current service requirements, but also provide faster flying times to a large part of the UK search and rescue region, as well as providing a more reliable service.”

The announcement was criticised by Angus Robertson, the SNP MP for Moray and the party’s Westminster leader.

He said: “The loss of military involvement from search and rescue services by the UK government is misguided.

“The current arrangement of service personnel and civilian crew has worked well, and this should be maintained.

“This announcement effectively means the end of all routine military helicopter flights in Scotland from the two remaining bases at RAF Lossiemouth and HMS Gannet.”

Mr Robertson added: “With the retirement of the Sea King fleet, there will no longer be a single military helicopter permanently based Scotland, and this is yet another cut to service personnel and vital capability.

“In contrast, our near-neighbours in Norway and Denmark operate 44 and 26 helicopters respectively.

“It is clear that the current Westminster government are continuing the defence decline in Scotland that has seen 10,500 defence job losses and an underspend of £5.6 billion over the past decade.”