UK retires Puma helicopter after 54 years of service

A pair of Cyprus-based Pumas at the type's farewell flypast out of RAF Akrotiri. With the helicopter also operated out of Brunei and the UK, its retirement comes after 54 years of operational service. (Crown Copyright)

The United Kingdom has retired its remaining Airbus Puma HC2 medium-lift helicopters after 54 years of operational service.

Farewell flypasts were held for the type at its last three operating locations of Brunei, Cyprus, and the UK ahead of its formal withdrawal from Royal Air Force (RAF) service on 31 March.

The RAF had 23 Puma helicopters (24 Westland Puma HC1s dating from the type's entry-into-service in 1971 were modernised to the standard, but one was subsequently lost on operations in Afghanistan). A number of the helicopters based at RAF Benson in the UK had already been placed into storage months ahead of the type's retirement, with the others now set to join them.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has not said if it intends to sell the airframes or if they will be scrapped. Neither has it said if the airframes at British Forces Brunei and at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus will be returned to be stored in the UK, or if they will remain in situ ahead of being sold or scrapped.

The UK has previously donated Westland Sea King helicopters to Ukraine, and with Portugal having recently gifted its own surplus Pumas to Kyiv it could be that the UK's Pumas might also be transferred. These would afford Ukraine with a numerically viable medium-lift helicopter support force that would be unaffected by any loss of US support.

For more information on thePuma, please see UK to axe ageing helicopters to save costs .