RAF says farewell to the Puma after 53 years of operational service

The end of March 2025 is seeing the retirement of the UK Royal Air Force’s (RAF’s) fleet of Puma helicopters after almost 54 years of operational service.

Farewell flights were mounted out of RAF Benson on 26 and 27 March by three Puma HC2 aircraft, visiting numerous US military sites of significance to the Puma’s UK service history, which began in 1971. Two flypast flights were also mounted out of RAF Akrotiri on 27 March to mark the Puma’s service on Cyprus.

Fifty-three Aerospatiale Pumas were originally procured for the RAF and designated Puma HC1s, 24 of which underwent a mid-life upgrade under a contract signed in September 2009. The RAF returned these modernised aircraft, now designated Puma HC2s, to operational service in 2015.

Published UK MoD data states that the RAF had a total of 20 Puma HC2s in its inventory as of April 2024, of which 17 were in active service.

In March 2021 the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced the New Medium Helicopter (NMH) programme to cover four distinct rotary-wing requirements. As well as replacing what was then a fleet of 23 RAF Puma HC2s operated by No 33 and No 230 squadrons out of RAF Benson in Oxfordshire, the programme was also intended to replace five Bell 212s serving with the Army Air Corps’ (AAC’s) No 667 Squadron in Brunei, three Griffin HAR2s operated by the RAF’s No 84 Squadron out of RAF Akrotiri on Cyprus (tasked with search and rescue), and an original six special-forces-roled AS365 N3 Dauphin IIs operated by the AAC’s No 658 Squadron from the Special Air Service barracks at Credenhill in Herefordshire.

In February 2024 three teams led by Airbus Helicopters, Leonardo UK and Lockheed Martin UK were issued with invitations to negotiate for the NMH programme by the UK MoD.

However, on 18 April 2024 the MoD announced it had awarded Airbus a GBP 122 million (EUR 142.6 million) contract for six Airbus H145s – smaller helicopters than the NMH solution was intended to be – to provide aviation support for the UK troops in Brunei and Cyprus. This procurement meant that the original premise of the NMH programme – to replace four distinct rotary-wing requirements with a single type, with all the logistical and support advantages that would bring – would no longer happen.

By the end of August 2024 both Airbus Helicopters and Lockheed Martin UK, offering the H175M and UH-60M Black Hawk respectively, had pulled out of what remained of the NMH programme amid a general consensus that the numbers for the programme just didn’t add up. While the MoD reportedly never specified how many aircraft would be required, leaving the bidders to determine how many they could supply for the money, the original premise of the NMH programme – to procure “up to 44 helicopters” for a budget of around GBP 1 billion – was never deemed realistic.

That left Leonardo Helicopters UK, offering the AW149, as the sole remaining bidder in a programme that appeared to fall into abeyance as the UK government paused decisions as it concentrated on a Strategic Defence Review that is due to be published some time in 2025.