RAF’s Puma fleet to retire by March 2025
December 2, 2024
On Wednesday 20 November, Secretary of State for Defence John Healey announced the imminent retirement of the RAF’s 17 remaining Westland Aerospatiale Puma HC.Mk 2 medium helicopters as part of wider a package of Strategic Decommissioning measures. These measures were aimed at taking “six outdated military capabilities” out of service by March 2025 in order to generate £500 million of savings that will be reinvested into defence.
Mr Healey said that: “The Puma helicopter has similarly served the Royal Air Force for a long time, having been first introduced in 1971 and extended several times. Puma will be retired in March 2025 when its current support contract expires. Pumas currently operate solely in Cyprus and Brunei, where they will be replaced by the new Airbus H-145 from 2026. During this short gap in capability, a commercial or military solution will be used for firefighting with our sovereign base in Cyprus and alternatives to Brunei will be used for some elements of jungle training.”
There has already been criticism that the MoD is cutting capabilities before the SDR has determined exactly what capabilities are required, and that these cuts are little more than an attempt to generate in-year financial savings without regard to military needs. This is perhaps particularly true of the withdrawal of the Puma fleet, which had been expected to serve until replaced by the New Medium Helicopter in the 2028 timeframe. A repair and maintenance services contract (actually a £320 million extension to the existing support contract) was reportedly due to have been signed in September 2024 taking the fleet out until 31 March 2028. This will presumably now be cancelled.
The Puma is an elderly helicopter. It is the only RAF frontline type from the 1970s that is still in service today, and it celebrated 50 years in service in June 2021. This might have surprised rival Westland Wessex crews who pointed at the supposed ‘fragility’ of what they dubbed ‘Pete’s Plastic Pursuit Ship’ when it entered service. It’s fair to say that they have been proven very wrong!
The Puma quickly proved to be fast, agile, and useful, capable of carrying 16 passengers, 12 fully equipped troops or up to two tonnes of freight. Freight could be carried in the cabin (which was quick to ‘re-role’ or underslung, or a mix of the two. The aircraft could also carry up to six stretchers in the casualty evacuation or medical emergency response team role. The aircraft was also very deployable, and could be broken down and prepared for air transport by a C-17 in less than four hours.
The first of two Puma prototypes made its maiden flight on 15 April 1965, and the RAF selected the type in 1967, leading to a significant joint manufacturing agreement between Aerospatiale and Westland Helicopters. The first two Royal Air Force Puma HC.Mk 1s were delivered on 29 January 1971, and No.33 Squadron, the first operational unit, formed at RAF Odiham on 14 June 1971. The second RAF Puma was one of those converted to HC.Mk 2 standards, and remains part of the active fleet.
The RAF acquired 40 Pumas originally (with another going to the Royal Aircraft Establishment, and one more being acquired as a ‘war prize’ from the Argentine Coast Guard in 1982. A top up batch of six aircraft was acquired subsequently, and later still, in 2002, six ex South African Air Force examples were acquired. The type saw extensive service in Northern Ireland, supporting the Army and RUC during the ‘Troubles’, and maintained a detachment in Belize for many years, helping to deter Guatemalan aggression and support jungle training.
Royal Air Force Pumas have also seen active service in Iraq, Venezuela, Yugoslavia, and Zaire, and have supported peacekeeping operations in Zimbabwe and the Persian Gulf, and disaster relief and humanitarian mission across the globe.
Preparations for a Puma Life Extension Programme began in 2008, when it was planned to upgrade 30 aircraft for service to the early 2020s. The number of aircraft was cut to 22, but subsequently revised to 24. The upgraded Puma HC.Mk 2 was fitted with Turbomeca Makila engines, new engine controls, new gearboxes and tail rotors, an improved defensive aids suite, and ballistic protection for both crew and passengers. The aircraft also gained a digital autopilot, and a new flight management system. The Puma HC.Mk 2 was claimed to be able to lift double the payload over three times the range of its predecessor, and crucially offered the kind of improvement in hot and high performance that made the type viable for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Puma force took up residence at RAF Benson in 2009, with No.230 Squadron relocating from RAF Aldergrove in Northern Ireland, and No.33 making the shorter hop from Odiham in Hampshire. No.28 Squadron, the support helicopter Operational Conversion Unit (OCU), borrows aircraft from the frontline units as required.
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) took delivery of the first upgraded Puma HC.Mk 2 helicopter from Eurocopter in 2012, and trials at Benson began in 2013. By 2024, one had been written off in an accident, 17 were in the ‘forward fleet’, and five were in storage. Of the forward fleet, about four were in use with No.33 Squadron at Benson, another three with No.84 Squadron (previously the No.33 Squadron SAR flight) at Akrotiri, and three with No.230 Squadron (previously No.1563 Flight) at Medicina Lines in Brunei Darussalam, as part of British Forces Brunei. Previously, No.230 Squadron had operated no aircraft of its own, and was involved in assessing options for the NMH programme.
The Pumas were among the helicopters that were to have been replaced under the New Medium Helicopter (NMH) programme.
The NMH programme was intended to lead to the procurement of a single modern, medium-lift support helicopter type to address up to five rotary wing requirements. These included a replacement for the RAF’s 23 Pumas, and replacements for six Army Air Corps AS565 Dauphins used for Special Forces support, as well as three Bell 212s (in Brunei) and three Bell 412s (in Cyprus).
In November 2021 it was reported that the NMH requirement was for up to 44 helicopters, for introduction into service in 2025, but by July 2023, it was reported that the requirement had been reduced and capped at 35 aircraft.
It was subsequently decided that six H145s would be ordered to replace the Bell 212s in Brunei and 412s in Cyprus – which had originally part of the NMH requirement, though the then-Minister of State James Cartlidge said that the number of helicopters to be procured under the NMH requirement remained the same, and the MoD said that there had been “no change to the scope of the advertised New Medium Helicopter Contract Notice and Defence remains committed to this programme.”
It became clear that the Bell 212s and 412s in Brunei and Cyprus could not be kept in service long enough to ‘bridge the gap’ to the introduction of the H145, and the Puma Force found itself deploying elements to cover the requirement, temporarily.
ADS Advance reported that the assigned budget had been reduced to £950 million (including VAT) from the original tender value of £1.2 million (plus VAT), including training, spares and an initial five-year period of in-service support. ADS also reported that the requirement had been reduced to a minimum of 23 helicopters, with extra scoring for each extra helicopter up to a total of 33 aircraft. This minimum number was (perhaps not entirely coincidentally) directly equivalent to the existing Puma fleet size.
When the UK issued an Invitation to Negotiate (ITN) in February 2024, three bidders were still in the running to provide the UK’s armed forces with a New Medium Helicopter (NMH), but before final bids were due, Lockheed Martin and Airbus Helicopters dropped out of the bidding, leaving Agusta-Westland and the AW149 as the sole contender. Though the Conservative Defence Minister, Ben Wallace was known to favour an uncompeted direct purchase of the AW149, many believed that the NMH programme ended at that point.
However, when he was asked about the status of the AW149 new medium-lift helicopter by Dave Doogan, MP, John Healey said that: “The process for the medium-lift helicopters is under way and continues.”
James Cartlidge, MP, then sought a clear commitment to NMH, and for the procurement to “have strong scoring for maintaining skilled rotary work in the UK, and for exportability, to sustain that work. Can the Secretary of State confirm that he will not change the competition, and that he is still committed to procuring the new medium helicopter without delay? Will the NMH come into service before those Pumas are retired?” He asked.
Richard Foord also sought an answer to the question as to “when the contract for the new medium helicopter will be introduced?”
Healey failed to answer either question, though it was revealed that the Puma helicopter would remain in service until March 2025, while the new H145 helicopter would enter service from 2026. It was said that the retirement of the Puma would avoid additional in-service costs and would focus efforts on introducing the Puma’s replacement as quickly as possible, implying that NMH was still alive, at least pending the conclusion of the Strategic Defence Review.
