By IRNA,
London : Britain is cutting the number of helicopter crews used for domestic search and rescue operations by 20 per cent so they can be sent to help British troops in Afghanistan, it was reported Monday.
The extra support is aimed at relieving the strain on helicopter pilots in Helmand province, where British troops have come under increasing risks of being killed by roadside bombs because of a shortage of air transport.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is reducing the size of crews at Britain’s six air force search and rescue stations from five to four, but the move is provoking fears that it may jeopardize their ability to respond to an emergency anywhere in the UK in an hour.
“Changes have been made to crew structures at these bases in order to provide additional support to our top priority: operations in Iraq and Afghanistan,” an MoD spokesman said.
But the spokesman denied that the cuts would affect normal search and rescue capability and support to civil authorities as its ability to respond flexibly during recent flooding had shown.
Doubts were raised by the opposition Conservatives with shadow defence secretary, Liam Fox, accusing the government of consistently failing to match its commitments with resources and that “it now seems that public safety could be the latest casualty.”
“The fact that such an important public duty is being cut is the most graphic example of how incredibly overstretched our armed forces now are,” Fox warned.
The government has repeatedly confirmed that the most immediate need in Afghanistan were helicopters. Official figures in January showed that only a third of Britain’s military helicopters were fit for front-line duty.
Last week, Defence Secretary Des Brown reportedly held a meeting with senior military personnel and civil servants to consider helicopter capability, with one possibility being to borrow from other countries and another to hire commercial ones.
British forces in Helmand province currently only have eight Chinook helicopters to draw upon that are capable of carrying up to 40 passengers. There are also four Royal Navy Sea Kings and four Army Air Corps Lynxes as well as eight Apache helicopter gunships.