Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Service

RAF Mountain Rescue Service
badge of the RAF Mountain Rescue Service
Active	1943 – present
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	Royal Air Force
Type	Search and rescue organisation
Role	Mountain rescue
Size	Headquarters and three teams
Part of	No. 85 Expeditionary Logistics Wing
Home stations	RAF Valley (HQ) RAF Leeming RAF Lossiemouth
Motto(s)	Whensoever

The Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Service (RAFMRS) provides the United Kingdom military's only all-weather search and rescue asset for the United Kingdom. Royal Air Force (RAF) mountain rescue teams (MRTs) were first organised during World War II to rescue aircrew from the large number of military aircraft crashes then occurring due to navigational errors in conjunction with bad weather and resulting poor visibility when flying in the vicinity of high ground. The practice at the time was to organise ad-hoc rescue parties from station medical sections and other ground personnel.

Experience demonstrated that this could be dangerous. While the mountains of the United Kingdom are not very tall, they contain much formerly glaciated terrain with steep cliffs, talus slopes, high peaks, and cirque basins; and generally experience a sub-Arctic climate at relatively low altitudes. Snow and high winds, sometimes in excess of 100 miles per hour (161 kilometres per hour), are possible any month of the year. Rescue operations in these conditions require personnel with specialised mountaineering training and equipment.

The Royal Air Force mountain rescue teams are credited with some of the earliest development of mountain rescue techniques and teams in the United Kingdom and overseas. RAFMRS teams continue to contribute to life-saving and mountain safety.^[1] Since the closure of military search and rescue (helicopter), RAFMRS moved from 2 Group to the newly reformed 38 Group in 2015 until its disbandment in 2020, and has now direct oversight by No. 85 (Expeditionary Logistics) Wing RAF.