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The military now use a mixture from large Chinooks to lighter helicopters.
The events at Kajaki in Afghanistan highighted the need for such a mixtre of helicopters. At Kajaki a British patrol became traped in a mine field trying to rescue fellow soldiers. They requested medevac, however a Chinnok was sent, and sadly set off a lot of the land mines killing many more soldiers.
"Medevac" as in military and not civilian air ambulance use? Due to the mission the military tends to use larger dual purpose troop carrier aircraft of whatever make is standard in their armed forces. Where as civilian craft might have started life or seen use as a military scout helicopter and carry two patients at a stretch but would be cheaper to maintain.
"Medevac" as in military and not civilian air ambulance use? Due to the mission the military tends to use larger dual purpose troop carrier aircraft of whatever make is standard in their armed forces. Where as civilian craft might have started life or seen use as a military scout helicopter and carry two patients at a stretch but would be cheaper to maintain.
Much of it depends on whether you are talking military or civilian. That further breaks down to whether it needs to be a multi-purpose copter as in those used by fire-rescue departments for FS, SAR, (Fire Suppression, Search and Rescue) or just EMS (Emergency Medical Services).
In recent times the AW139-based Boeing MH-139 has replaced the UH-1N fleets of the USAF, and the AW139 is in a decent number of fire-rescue services.
One of the biggest challenges in switching from say Bell Huey's to the AW139 is the retraining pilots will need. Many come from the military and then hook up with local municipalities and/or air rescue operations. So they likely trained on and used AH-1 Cobra's or the UH-1 Iroquois. While any good pilot can learn to fly other aircraft, there is a learning curve.
Plus maintenance and support programs are vital to make a proper transition.
The USCG uses the Sikorsky MH-60T so who is to say what is the very best one out there.
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