British Army Wildcat Helicopters to Retire From Next Year

This is a fantastically shortsighted decision, I am actually kind of stunned how stupid this is.

This is acceptable really only if these helicopters are going to Ukraine, but I highly doubt that.

The thing people who don't care about war don't realize is that as expensive as military helicopters are, the training of the pilots and the ability of the equipment are just as applicable to peacetime life saving and disaster response situations (including crucially firefighting) as they are to war. That has always been the magic of helicopters, they are brutally unpredictable in war because they can go anywhere and do anything in an improvisational or practiced fashion and yet that same strength somehow applies even more powerfully to peacetime than war.... Almost no other weapon system perhaps the UGV logistics vehicles Ukraine has been developing promise a similar transformative potential.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W3QW1VQqrzc

I am quite sure the designer of the Robinson R66 (which by the way has already been converted into an unmanned platform as well) did NOT ever consider this was a usecase of the helicopter, the UK giving this up is giving up the ability to ouptace disasters even as they are happening.

Further, a Wildcat trained in counter drone operations could in the event of a mass drone attack of the UK enter an area, eliminate all the drones and then perform an adhoc evacuation of victims to a safe area where they can be transferred to dedicated medical vehicles. The problem with drones is that you have to have separate drones for each of these tasks whereas a helicopter with a veteran crew can organically transition between these roles with the same standardized airframe.

Giving this up is giving up the intergenerational expertise of using helicopters to solve human problems, which isn't something drones can ever replace no matter how capable they get, this is about a profession and mindset not just raw physical capacity and capability, of which helicopters still absolutely dominate unmanned platforms... unless we are talking about converted manned helicopters and the thing about large unmanned rotary wing craft is the best ones are just modified manned helicopters with already established pedigrees and operational refinement.....

To put this another way, this is exactly what I would want the UK to do as an island nation encompassed by littoral territory if I was an adversary.