The RAF and Royal Navy are to end their involvement in Britain's search and rescue helicopter service, turning it into a civilian only operation within five years. There are eight military bases involved in search and rescue missions but the fleet of Sea Kings they use are due to leave service in March 2016. Under the new plan a contractor will be expected to provide civilian helicopters and search and rescue crews for at least 10 locations. Today, Transport Secretary Justine Greening said search and rescue would be provided by civilian crews following the Sea Kings' retirement. She added that she expected to award a contract for the search-and-rescue work in early 2013. The winning bidder would be expected to operate from 10 locations but provide at least the same level of service as at present. Ms Greening went on: "The Royal Navy and the RAF crews have shown great dedication and professionalism in delivering an exemplary search and rescue service for many years, and we owe them all great thanks for this. "Looking forward, we are confident that, building on nearly 30 years of civilian service provided under contract to the MCA, a fully-civilian service will be able to maintain the same standards in the future." Shipping Minister Mike Penning said Britain would be getting a new fleet of faster and more modern search-and-rescue helicopters. Today's announcement follows the Government announcement in February this year that it was halting a £6 billion procurement programme for search-and-rescue helicopters because the preferred bidder had admitted it had access to commercially sensitive information. Under the privatisation plans, preferred bidder Soteria would have provided US Sikorsky helicopters to fly search-and-rescue missions from 12 bases.
