RAF combat helicopters come to the aid of Scottish Air Ambulance services across the north and north-east

Military forces across the UK have been pitching in to aid emergency services’ work to push back against coronavirus in the north and north-east.

Flying out of Kinloss Barracks in Moray, RAF helicopters had been supporting the Scottish Ambulance Services response to the pandemic last year.

Usually serving as transport for troops, weapons or extraction of frontline medical emergencies –  Puma helicopters were re-tasked to shuttle patients to emergency care facilities across the country.

At critical care team bases in Aberdeen, the Puma crews worked with dozens of personnel from the Scottish Ambulance Service to streamline their joint efforts.

In addition to missions launched from bases in Moray, air based evacuations have been conducted from Shetland, Orkney and Arran in their continued joint effort with the emergency services.

It is understood that more than 5,000 UK Armed Forces personnel are currently deployed to support the response to the coronavirus across the UK, working on 70 different tasks ranging from schools testing to the rollout of vaccines.

Making the armed forces support during the Covid-19 crisis the largest homeland military operation during peacetime.

Back in summer of last year the joint effort between the NHS and armed forces also included the setting up of the NHS Louisa Jordan facility in Glasgow, to staff mobile testing units across Scotland.