Helicopters

The Support Helicopter Force (SHF) is tasked by Joint Helicopter Command (JHC) alongside the Royal Navy’s Commando Helicopter Force and various Army squadrons. It comprises seven squadrons equipped with 40 Chinook HC.2s and HC.2As, 28 Merlin HC.3 and HC.3As and 38 Puma HC.1s. SHF provides battlefield support and mobility to the troops on the ground.

Its fleet has always been heavily utilised, but the rate has increased greatly in recent years. A long-standing need to increase JHC’s fleet has been partially fulfilled by the acquisition of six Merlin Mk.512s (as HC.3As) originally destined for Denmark. These allowed 78 Squadron to convert to the Merlin, its previous Falklands-based Sea King HAR.3 incarnation returning to its previous identity as 1564 Flight. The operational standup of the squadron took place at RAF Benson, Oxfordshire, on 3 December 2007, when it assumed responsibility for 28(AC) Squadron’s Merlin detachment already in Iraq.

The second augmentation for SHF will be the modification of the eight Chinook HC.3s, originally intended to support the Special Forces, for the support helicopter role: the first should be in use in 2009. They will join the Chinook Wing based at RAF Odiham in Hampshire, JHC’s heavy-lift element. The decision was also taken to extend the service life of 35 Puma HC.1s to 2022, instead of withdrawing them from service in 2010. Eurocopter will install new turboméca Makila turboshafts, a ‘glass’ cockpit and communication, navigation and defensive systems in the old airframes.

Outside the JHC, the RAF has a fleet of 25 Westland Sea King HAR.3 and HAR.3As for search and rescue operations. Six detachments are maintained by 22 and 202 Squadrons for SAR over land and sea, while 203(R) squadron at RAF St Mawgan, Cornwall, acts as the operational conversion unit. The Sea King is due to be withdrawn in 2017, although from 2012 a contractor will become responsible for 24-hour SAR coverage in the UK under a Private Finance initiative known as SAR-H. In addition to the Sea Kings, four Bell Griffin HAR.2s are flown by 84 squadron, the only RAF flying unit based at RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus.