Helicopter rescue missions for mountain rescue are co-ordinated at RAF Kinloss

The RAF base that co-ordinates all of Britain’s helicopter mountain rescue missions looks set to close under coalition Government plans.

The Aeronautical Rescue Co-ordination Centre is housed at RAF Kinloss in Moray, Scotland, and handles all requests from Britain’s mountain rescue teams for helicopter support by the Sea Kings of the RAF and Royal Navy and rescue missions by the Coastguard.

Under the Strategic Defence and Security Review published today, Kinloss is earmarked for closure, along with nearby RAF Lossiemouth, home to 202 Squadron, which provides search and rescue helicopter cover for the East of Scotland.

The Ministry of Defence has not yet announced where or if the current staff will be redeployed.

From 1941 until the end of 1997 there were two ARCCs, one at Plymouth and at Edinburgh.

The two were combined in 1997 at RAF Kinloss and all requests for help from the other emergency services – police, fire, ambulance and coastguard – are handled at the single centre. The base is also home to the RAF Kinloss Mountain Rescue Team.

A question mark also hangs over HMS Gannet, at Prestwick Airport, home to the Royal Navy’s search and rescue Sea Kings, the busiest in the country. A move to Glasgow Airport has been mooted for the service.

The Government is making defence cuts of eight per cent – scaled back after the personal intervention of Prime Minister David Cameron earlier this month. One of the first acts of the coalition Government in June was to shelve a £7bn plan to part-privatise search and rescue helicopters that had been devised by the previous Labour administration.

Secretary of State for Defence Liam Fox, said: “Tough decisions are required to reconfigure our armed forces to confront future threats whilst we also tackle the £38bn deficit that has accumulated in the 12 years since the last Defence Review.

“The MoD must become as effective and as efficient as possible. Lord Levene will help me deliver radical reform to streamline the department.”

The RAF will lose 5,000 personnel; the Royal Navy a similar number, and the Army 7,000. 25,000 civilian MoD jobs will also go under the plans.

Although the search and rescue helicopters of the RAF and Royal Navy are primarily a military resource, about 90 per cent of the missions flown are on civilian rescue incidents, of which about half in Scotland are mountain rescues.