I'm making a simulation game and there's a large focus on the humanitarian effort military personnel put in, putting aside the shooting and more on the story. Part of this is a Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT) landing with radio communication in the background, which obviously is using callsigns.

For the purpose of realism, I am trying to find references for what callsigns are used for these MERT aircraft/teams. Does anyone have any idea what a MERT team might be called? I'm looking specifically for UK forces however NATO is also fine.



For the UK as requested, this information is in § 2.32 of the Radiotelephony Manual (CAP 413). The call-sign for a Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) is three parts:

  2. Two-digit identifier unique to the aircraft (list on Wikipedia).
  3. Suffix A or E
    • A for a helicopter en-route to an emergency or to a hospital with patient(s) on board
    • E for positioning back to base (a lesser priority than A but higher than the other traffic).

If the helicopter is responding to a scene, it can be pronounced Helimed 7-7 Alpha, for example. Note that Wikipedia lists three-digit identifiers for some helicopters, contrary to what the manual says.


From § 2.44 of the same manual, the call-signs are 'rescue' and 'rescue helicopter', suffixed by the mission number. This is for search and rescue (SAR), no distinction is made for a purely medical mission in the manual.

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