And who believes anything the MOD says? We will hear the truth in time as more and more leave the forces and tell their stories.

Caroline, Plymouth,

These helicopters will save more lives in Afghanistan than in the uk. It is only common sense to send them where they are needed the most.

Mike, Manchester, uk

why do the general public have to be put at risk just because the RAF are under funded and do not have enough equiptment to cover their operational and public duties, who will cover this shortfall of a very needy service?Should my taxes not be put more to a puplic service rather than a military one?

Brian Low , Stotfold,

Consider the Heli-Basket for multiple rescue in the UK. It is the most tested rescue basket in the world. It does not spin regadless of loading, air speed or manouver. It is 1000 to 1500% more effective than a hoist and approved for rescue by the US militray under ARCENT in Afghanistan and Iraq.

John Tollenaere, Seneca, SC, USA

Does the catalogue of of errors from this failed government ever end. Just when you think you have heard it all along comes something else.

Brown for god sake hold an election so that we can elect a real government knows how to run this country.

D Case, Newquay,

I hate this government and everything they have done to systematically undermine and reduce our serving forces. It angers me that they cannot, or will not, see its the sheer professionalism on our troops' part that gets this sorry mess dealt with on a day to day basis and not govt interfering.

Kelly Stewart, Oxford, UK

Please note readers.The MOD are civil servants who really do hold service officers in distain.We could cut the MOD by 60% and not even notice it.Just Leave each service to look after itself.The civil service is far to expensive and worse than non productive is now counter productive.God help us.

Robert, Derby, UK

Seems like another reason for an early election.

Dave, Chorley,

Mooving SAR crews and airframes away from the UK will have an impact on SAR ops within the UK. But in my opinion those airframes and crews will be more useful on frontline ops as there are troops dying due to lack of air support. Maybe people on the hills should exercise a little more care in future

Tim, Liverpool,

Since when do Afghans pay British taxes? If it were my family at risk due to lack of rescue equipment because Britain's politicians insist on pretending we have the resources to go elsewhere and save the world so as to imitate the Americans, I'd make damn well sure they'd be taken to court over it.

Michael Martin, London,

The job of the UK based SAR is to provide trained rescue units for deployment in war. That they provide a very useful peacetime service is an additional benefit. The carriers and Navy are vital as 90% of our food and resources come by sea. Try a living a week without using anything that came by sea.

Michael, Manchester, Great Britain

The UK cannot afford to fight expensive foreign wars which are bankrupting us.

If Brown showed vision by declaring the UK a neutral country, dropped out of NATO and the UN, and concentrated his financial actions to this country, then (and only then) I, for one, would vote for him.

Dr Patrick Salt, Walsall, UK

The sooner this country realizes that it is a tin pot little country that is ignored the world over, the better.
We should scrap the nuclear weapons, spend the money on better equipping our armed forces, provide them with a better housing at home and use the remainder to bail out the economy.

Bob Johnson, Liverpool, UK

ISAF is essentially a NATO project. SO why do individual countries need their own equipment ? Surely the Americans have more than enough helicopters available ? This venture shows that Britain is in no position to fight an overseas battle. Better to equip herself to defend mainland only.

John Taylor, London,

If Gordon Brown had funded the Armed Forces properly in steaed of bloating the Civil Service with 600,000 ( approx) saff then there would not have been this shortfall in equipment. According to one of my friends in the USA the Natonal Guards in some states have more Helos than our armed forces.

W D Toulman, WALKINGTON East Yorkshire, United Kingdom

If there was children of Cabinet Ministers on the Front Line, the Military would be suitably resourced and equiped by two jobs Des who's only Military experience is reading Commando comics during his up bringing. Scape the John Lewis list and spend that on Married Quarters it would be a start.

Richard, Essex,

"Merlins from Denmark?"

The Danes ordered the Merlins and then, by good fortune, didn't have enough trained crew to operate them by the time they were delivered. It allowed honest Des to do a deal and pretend to be achieving something for the benefit of British troops... temporarioly.

Richard C, Stafford,

The MOD are wrong. The flight's are already stretched to breaking point with serious undermanning, ageing aircraft which are difficult to maintain and the Falklands detachment. I spent over 17 years on SAR Sea Kings and in my opinion this will have a far reaching, adverse effect on SAR operations.

Edward Little, Chapel-en-le-Frith, England

You can see the end point here, these stations limp along with fewer resources,with luck there are no dissasters, and the whole thing is seen as justifcation for more cuts in the future!

Hugo, Nottingham,

Helicopters need to be serviced and are sometimes unserviceable for other reasons (lack of spares???). The reality is that with only 1 helicopter at a base there will frequently be non available. That's why they have 2.

Dee, Bournemouth, England

The Chiefs of Staff are as responsible for debacles in military under-resourcing as the goverrnment. Rather than look after post-military careers in the House of Lords, as government appointees to NGOs et al, they should protect first their own people and then the British people. Shame on them all!

Terry, Chichester, UK

Britannia no longer rules the waves! so why commision 2 new large A/C carriers? I think we should cancel the 2 them & spend this money on equipment & weapons our troops actually need. Who knows, there may even be a bit left over for the rest of us!

Nigel Mcloughlin, calne, u.k

There are seven brand new Chinnooks sitting in storage & not being used because some Whitehall idiot thinks that it is necessary to examine the software source code of the flight computer before allowing their use.

Boeing say it is not necessary These machines can be flight tested like any other.

James, London, UK

As someone who was on a busy mountain rescue team for many years, this story is alarming. One helicopter is just not enough - there are many occasions when two would be needed, such as holidays, when one is out of action for maintenance and on training flights. These cuts will cost lives.

Andy Carling, Brussels, Belgium

Merlins from Denmark?

Why? They're built at Westland in Yeovil.

But even if we have the airframes, will their be enough aircrew and maintainers? Or would they, as with Apache, end up in hangars for lack of crews?

Chris Palmer, Southampton,

This just shows how stretched Mr Brown and his inept Government have made our armed forces. God help us if something serious happens at home. Brown should increase the Defence Budget by £1bn per annum now or pull out for these overseas commitments.

Peter Jones, Stroud,

If according to the MOD one helicopter is enough, why did they ever have two? When did they discover this expensive mistake? Or are they just being dishonest again? Surely not ..... ?

Neil Murphy, cromer,

While the UK military is in need , Blair and his 'New' Labour gutted the Military. Why has his sons not served instead of being rowdy in puplic?

Chris, Victoria , Canada