A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
| RAF Search and Rescue Force | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Active | 1941 – 18 February 2016 |
| Disbanded | 18 February 2016 |
| Country |  United Kingdom |
| Branch |  Royal Air Force |
| Role | Search and Rescue |
The Royal Air Force Search and Rescue Force (SARF or SAR Force) was the Royal Air Force organisation which provided around-the-clock aeronautical search and rescue cover in the United Kingdom, Cyprus and the Falkland Islands, from 1986 until 2016.
The Search and Rescue Force was established in 1986 from the helicopter elements of the RAF Marine Branch which was disbanded that year. The Force supported search and rescue over the United Kingdom until 4 October 2015 when the role was handed over to civilian contractor Bristow Helicopters.
On 18 February 2016, the force's disbandment was officially marked with a parade in front of The Prince of Wales, himself a former SAR pilot, and Catherine, Princess of Wales, his wife.[1]
History
In 1918 the RAF was established through the merging of the aviation arms of the Royal Navy, the Royal Navy Air Service (RNAS), and that of the Army, the Royal Flying Corps. Together with its aircraft, vessels acquired to support RAF seaplane operations were also transferred to the new service,[2] becoming the Marine Craft Section (MCS),[2]
Post-war the MCS became a force of 150 vessels which in addition to supporting the operation of seaplanes were equipped for rescue operations, with a launch being at the ready whenever an aircraft was flying over water.[2] However, the training and seamanship of the crews, especially with regards to navigation, meant that the MCS at this time was only suitable for inshore rescue operations.[2]
As the vessels it had inherited from the Navy began wear out the RAF began to have built for it launches capable of higher speeds and in light of the larger crews of some aircraft, greater capacity. This would in the late 1930s lead to the acquiring of High Speed Launches (HSL) for rescue operations.
However, during the Second World War the MCS found itself ill-prepared for war. During the Battle of Britain even with the help of civilian vessels and the Royal Navy, aircrew who baled out or ditched in the North Sea and English Channel had only a 20 percent chance of being returned to their squadrons, with over 200 pilots and aircrew being lost to the sea during the battle.[2] An informal air-sea rescue was started in July 1940 by Flying Officer Russell Aitken, who with the approval of his senior officer at RAF Gosport, began flying a Supermarine Walrus to rescue pilots downed in the English Channel. By the end of August, when he ceased this work, he had rescued around 35 British and German aircrew.[3]
In light of this, in 1941, an emergency meeting was convened by Air Marshal Sir Arthur "Bomber" Harris. The Royal Navy offered to take over in its entirety the at sea rescue role, the RAF declined and subsequently created the Directorate of Air Sea Rescue on 6 February 1941, which adopted the motto "The sea shall not have them". Operationally it was to become known as Air Sea Rescue Services (ASRS), which later became the RAF Search and Rescue Force.[4] The headquarters of the ASRS was co-located with that of Coastal Command with which it operated closely.
Together with creation of specialist Air Sea Rescue Units (ASRU), ASRS worked to improve the survival of aircrews through the development and issue of better individual survival equipment, including one man inflatable dinghies for fighter pilots copied from the Germans; the training of aircrew in ditching drills to maximise their chances of surviving to be retrieved; the development and fielding of air droppable survival equipment; and coordination between the different services, branches and units towards the goal of locating and recovering of downed airmen.
The air-sea rescue squadrons of the ASRS flew a variety of aircraft, usually hand me downs rejected or withdrawn from front line service by the RAF's other branches or as in the case of the Walrus begged from the Navy.[5] They used Supermarine Spitfires and Boulton Paul Defiants to patrol for downed aircrew and Avro Ansons to drop supplies and dinghies. Supermarine Walrus and Supermarine Sea Otter amphibious craft were used to pick up aircrew from the water.[6] Larger aircraft were used to drop airborne lifeboats. Although the Walrus and Sea Otters could pick up survivors close to shore and in coastal waters further out to sea it was still not possible for aircraft to routinely pick up survivors, the large flying boats that could do so, such as the Consolidated Catalinas and Short Sunderlands of Coastal Command, had many other jobs to do and were not always available.[5] The role of aircraft in the ASRS therefore, was to locate downed airmen and to keep them alive, by dropping them survival equipment and stores, until an ASRS launch, or one from the Royal Navy's Naval Sea Rescue Services, arrived to pick them up.[5] Generally MCS craft had responsibility for the Channel and North Sea, and Navy ones for the Western Approaches.
By the end of the Second World War, more than 8,000 aircrew and 5,000 civilians had been rescued. At the end of the Second World War the MCS had some 300 HSLs and over a thousand other vessels,[2] the largest fleet of such rescue craft in the world. This fleet and the RAF sailors that crewed it would contract as the RAF did, however it continued be found everywhere that the RAF flew over water.
Introduction of helicopters
In the mid 1950s, helicopters began to replace fixed–wing aircraft and supplement the marine craft in the search and rescue role, their ability to hover giving them an ability to recover survivors that fixed wing aircraft did not have. It was not until the 1960s, with the introduction of the Westland Whirlwind, the Westland Wessex and later the Westland Sea King, that it was possible to replace marine craft in all sea and weather conditions. Helicopters have the advantage of speed, which means that the same coverage as marine craft can be provided with far fewer bases and much reduced personnel numbers. However, even into the 1970s helicopters had not completely replaced RAF marine craft, however by this time the MCS craft were becoming increasingly elderly and service in the MCS increasingly unattractive.
In 1986 the Marine Branch was disbanded, the last of the RAF's vessels were retired. Henceforth the RAF's rescue operations would be entirely helicopter based, Air Sea Rescue Services would be renamed the Search and Rescue Force.
Role
The SARF's primary roles were military search and rescue, and the provision of rescue for civilian aircraft in distress under the 1948 Chicago Convention. The latter was a delegated responsibility to the UK MoD from the Department of Transport, who had primary responsibility for general search and rescue of any type throughout the UK Search and Rescue Region (UK SRR). The military role involved the rescuing of aircrew who have ejected or parachuted from, or crash-landed their aircraft. This role raises the wartime combat effectiveness of the RAF (and RN) by enabling downed aircrew to be returned to front-line flying duties as soon as possible.
Although established with a primary role of military search and rescue, most of SARF's operational missions were spent in its secondary role, conducting civil search and rescue. This entails the rescue of civilians from the sea, on mountains, from flooded regions or other locations on land.
The aeronautical search and rescue roles were complemented by the related Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Service whose trained mountaineers also conduct search and rescue in hilly terrain. SARF helicopters and RAF mountaineers often work together on mountain rescue incidents.
The military and civil roles were shared with the Sea King helicopters of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm, while the civil search and rescue role was also shared with the helicopters of HM Coastguard.
Organization
Search and Rescue Helicopter Wing
The wing was formed at RAF Finningley on 1 September 1976, it was disbanded on 1 December 1992.[7]
Search and Rescue Training Unit
The Search and Rescue Training Unit was formed on 3 December 1979 at RAF Valley.[7]
No. 22 Squadron RAF
15 February 1955 - June 1955 - HQ at RAF Thorney Island
- Bristol Sycamore HC.12[8]
- 'A' Flight [9]
June 1955 - June 1956 - HQ at RAF Thorney Island
- Westland Whirlwind HAR.2[8]
| Flight | Base | County | From | Until | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | RAF Thorney Island | Hampshire | June 1955 | June 1956 | [10] |
| A | RAF St Mawgan | Cornwall | June 1956 | April 1956 | [9] |
| B | RAF Martlesham Heath | Suffolk | 25 June 1955[10] | April 1956 | |
| B | RAF Felixstowe | Suffolk | April 1956 | June 1956 | Flight moved from Martlesham Heath[9] |
| C | RAF Valley | Anglesey | 27 September 1955 | June 1956 | [9] |
June 1956 - April 1974 - HQ at RAF St Mawgan
- Westland Whirlwind HAR.2 until August 1962 replaced by Whirlwind HAR.10s from August 1962[8]
| Flight | Base | County | From | Until | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | RAF St Mawgan | Cornwall | June 1956 | November 1958 | Moved to Chivenor[9] |
| A | RAF Chivenor | Devon | November 1958 | April 1974 | Moved from St Mawgan[9] |
| B | RAF Felixstowe | Suffolk | June 1956 | May 1961 | Disbanded[9] |
| B | RAF Tangmere | West Sussex | June 1961 | February 1973 | Reformed. Disbanded. |
| B | RAF Coltishall | Norfolk | April 1973 | April 1974 | Reformed.[9] |
| C | RAF Valley | Anglesey | June 1956 | April 1974 | [9] |
| D | RAF Manston | Kent | July 1961 | March 1969[10] | |
| Unknown | RAF St Mawgan | Cornwall | October 1956[10] | Preparation for Operation Grapple | |
| Unknown | RAF Thorney Island | Hampshire | December 1959 | [10] |
April 1974 - January 1976 - HQ at RAF Thorney Island
- Whirlwind HAR.10[8]
| Flight | Base | County | From | Until | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | RAF Chivenor | Devon | April 1974 | January 1976 | [9] |
| B | RAF Coltishall | Norfolk | April 1974 | January 1976 | [9] |
| C | RAF Valley | Anglesey | April 1974 | January 1976 | [9] |
| Unknown | RAF Brawdy[10] | Pembrokeshire | |||
| Unknown | RAF Leuchars[10] | Fife |
January 1976 - June 1976 - HQ at RAF Finningley
- Whirlwind HAR.10[8]
| Flight | Base | County | From | Until | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | RAF Chivenor | Devon | January 1976 | June 1976 | [9] |
| B | RAF Coltishall | Norfolk | January 1976 | April 1976 | Moved to Leuchars[9] |
| B | RAF Leuchars | Fife | April 1976 | June 1976 | From Coltishall[9] |
| C | RAF Valley | Anglesey | January 1976 | June 1976 | [9] |
| Unknown | RAF Brawdy | Pembrokeshire | |||
| Unknown | RAF Manston | Kent | |||
| Unknown | RAF Leconfield | East Riding of Yorkshire |
June 1976 - December 1992[10] - HQ at RAF Finningley
- Westland Wessex HAR.2[8][11]
| Flight | Base | County | From | Until | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HQ | RAF Finningley | South Yorkshire | 1 October 1992 | [12] | |
| HQ | RAF St Mawgan | Cornwall | 1 October 1992 | [12] | |
| A | RAF Chivenor | Devon | June 1976 | December 1992 | [9] |
| B | RAF Leuchars | Fife | June 1976 | December 1992 | [13] |
| C | RAF Valley | Anglesey | June 1976 | December 1992 | [14][12][9] |
| D | DST Leconfield | East Riding of Yorkshire | [11] | ||
| E | RAF Manston | Kent | [11] | ||
| E | RAF Coltishall | Norfolk | December 1992 | [15] |
December 1992 - September 1997 - HQ at RAF St Mawgan[10]
- Westland Wessex HAR.2[10]
- Westland Sea King HAR.3 from June 1994[10]
- Westland Sea King HAR.3A from May 1997[10]
| Flight | Base | County | From | Until | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HQ | RAF St Mawgan | Cornwall | [16] | ||
| A | RM Chivenor | Devon | December 1992 | Sea King's from disbanded B Flight, 202 Sqn[17] from June 1994[9] | |
| B | RAF Leuchars | Fife | December 1992 | March 1994 | Disbanded.[9] |
| B | Wattisham Airfield | Suffolk | 18 July 1994 | Sea King's from disbanded C Flight, 202 Sqn[18] | |
| C | RAF Valley | Anglesey | December 1992 | September 1997 | [17][9] |
| E | RAF Coltishall | Norfolk | December 1992 | 21 July 1994 | Disbanded[15] |
September 1997 - unknown - HQ at RMB Chivenor[9]
- Westland Sea King HAR.3/3A
| Flight | Base | County | From | Until | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | RM Chivenor | Devon | HAR.3A[9] | ||
| B | Wattisham Airfield | Suffolk | HAR.3A[9] | ||
| C | RAF Valley | Anglesey | September 1997 | HAR.3[9] |
Unknown - October 2015 - HQ at RAF Valley
- Westland Sea King HAR.3/3A
| Flight | Base | County | From | Until | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | RM Chivenor | Devon | October 2015 | [19] | |
| B | Wattisham Airfield | Suffolk | |||
| C | RAF Valley | Anglesey | July 2015 | [20][21] |
No. 110 Squadron RAF
3 June 1959 – 15 February 1971 - HQ at RAF Kuala Lumpur
- Whirlwind HC.4/HAR.10 & Sycamore HR.13(April 1960-October 1964)
| Flight | Base | County | From | Until | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unknown | Nanga Gaat | Borneo | 1963 | November 1967 | Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation |
| Unknown | Brunei | 1963 | November 1967 | Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation |
No. 202 Squadron RAF
August 1964 - September 1976 - HQ at RAF Leconfield
- Whirlwind HAR.10