RAF rescue teams to be sent to Afghanistan

The number of crews available at the RAF's search & rescue stations around the UK will be reduced from 5 to 4 to enable to sending of these teams to Afghanistan. These teams will then help rescue troops caught in insurgent attacks such as IEDs to reduce the number killed. However there are fears this will weaken the search & rescue response at home, currently each station has to provide a helicopter and crew able to respond within 15 minutes and nowhere in the UK is said to be more than an hour away (in daylight), though an MOD spokesman said response times and normal service will not be affected. Well we'll see.