Introduction

The Military Search and Rescue Service

The Military Search and Rescue (SAR) Service exists primarily to assist military and civilian aircrew in difficulty, although a large proportion of its work involves assisting shipping or people in distress, both on land and at sea. SAR cover for the United Kingdom and a large area of the surrounding sea is provided 24 hours a day and 365 days a year by the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy.

The SAR force currently consists of RAF and RN SAR Sea King helicopters operating from 8 locations around the UK, specially equipped RAF Nimrod aircraft based in RAF Kinloss in Scotland and 4 RAF Mountain Rescue Teams. Two RAF SAR helicopter units operate in Cyprus and the Falklands.

Incidents can include long range medical evacuation from ships at sea, assistance to vessels in distress, cliff fallers, swimmers, divers and surfers. On land many callouts are to search for missing persons or to rescue injured climbers, walkers, riders or those involved in road traffic accidents. SAR units are also often called upon to provide hospital-to-hospital transfers. Missions can include the rescue of foreign mariners, assistance to foreign flagged vessels or to other countries such as France.

Additional aeronautical Search and Rescue services are provided by 4 Maritime and Coastguard Agency helicopter units. Details of their activity are not included.

The RAF Aeronautical Rescue Co-ordination Centre ( ARCC ) at RAF Kinloss controls all military aerial resources. It watches over an area extending from the Faeroes in the North, the English Channel in the South, about halfway across the Atlantic Ocean and halfway across the North Sea . It has direct data and voice links with rescue assets in the UK and Europe . Detailed maps and charts are combined with an intimate knowledge of UK topography to enable controllers to match resources to tasks quickly and co-ordinate the rescue operation.

More information about Royal Navy and RAF SAR can be found at:

http://www.royal-navy.mod.uk/operations-and-support/fleet-air-arm/sar-operations/ and http://www.raf.mod.uk/careers/lifeintheraf/searchandrescue.cfm

Data Information

The UK SAR data source is a weekly download from the ARCC database at RAF Kinloss. Every incident recorded by ARCC is included in these tables. Incident data from Cyprus and the Falklands are received by email on an ad-hoc basis and may be incomplete. All data are validated and checked by DASA on receipt.

Table 5.1 shows the numbers of incidents, callouts and people moved from 1998 to 2008.

Table 5.2 shows the number of callouts and people moved by UK Military Search and Rescue units from 1998 to 2008.

Table 5.3 shows the numbers of callouts and people moved by UK Military Search and Rescue units by type of assistance from 1998 to 2008.

Table 5.4 shows the numbers of callouts and people moved in each region around the UK from 1998 to 2008.

Table 5.5 shows the locations of UK Military Search and Rescue callouts in 2008.

Key Points

• In 2008, there were 2,025 UK or overseas incidents resulting in 2,179 callouts of Royal Navy and RAF helicopters, Nimrod aircraft and Mountain Rescue teams. A total of 1,763 people were moved (Table 5.1).
  
  
• Incidents rose 8% and callouts 6% compared with 2007, while the number of people moved fell by 3%. Incidents and callouts are both at their highest level since 1998 (Table 5.1).
  
  
• 97% of UK callouts in 2008 were to civilian incidents (Table 5.2).
  
  
• 50% of UK callouts in 2008 were to Scotland, the South West region or Wales. A further 28% of callouts were to incidents at sea (Table 5.4).