Boeing reveals first special operations Chinook for UK

Boeing rolled out the first of 14 CH-47F ER special operations Chinook helicopters for the UK on 21 July 2026. (Boeing)

Boeing has revealed the first CH-47F Chinook Block II Extended Range (ER) helicopter for the UK Royal Air Force (RAF), publishing images of the first of 14 new special operations forces (SOF) airframes at its Ridley Park production facility near Philadelphia in Pennsylvania.

Published on 21 July 2026, the images for the first time showed the helicopter (and presumably the fleet) to be finished in the same matt black finish as the MH-47G Chinooks of the US Special Operations Command (SOCOM). Further to the colour scheme, the aircraft was seen fitted with ER (‘fat tank') fuel tanks, and for (but not yet with) the RTX-Raytheon AN/APQ-187 Silent Knight terrain-following and weather detection multi-mode radar (MMR).

Release of the imagery came some 14 months after the UK government disclosed in May 2025 that Boeing had begun building the new RAF Chinooks, ahead of deliveries to run from 2028 to 2032.

These new helicopters will be fitted with some UK-specific avionics for commonality with the existing Chinook HC5/6/6A fleets and will also feature mission kit common to the MH-47G SOF configuration SOCOM. According to the earlier US Defense Security Cooperation Agency approval from October 2018. The approval did not list the aerial refuelling probe normally fitted to the MH-47G, and while this was initially absent from the UK government's list of additional capabilities for the new helicopters its fitting was confirmed by the Ministry of Defence earlier in 2026 (although the ministry added that tanking will be provided by US Marine Corps Lockheed Martin KC-130 Hercules aircraft, as the Airbus Voyagers used by the UK cannot perform this role for helicopters).

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