Phil,
As part of my remit in the Armed forces I look after all the south west Search and Rescue helicopter emergency equipment and all the airfield fire stations and ambulance equipment.
Quick one for Marcel Eve, medical equipment in use with the Armed Forces is exactly the same as the stuff in use in the NHS, as is all the equipment we use on operations overseas or at sea. The emphasis is very much upon the Biomedical Engineer to ensure that equipment "survives" the environments that is was very much not designed to be used in, and to that end the life expectancy is not normally more than 5 years, although this very much depends on who's paying the bill for the replacements and what's going on in the military environment (i.e. January 2003 I got in excess on £1M of equipment in one splash for use in a front line field hospital - S/5s, Zolls etc etc). If only the training budget was so lavish!
Richie.
