{"id":1809,"date":"2025-07-15T08:05:59","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T06:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/?p=1809"},"modified":"2025-06-08T09:59:02","modified_gmt":"2025-06-08T07:59:02","slug":"raf-waves-last-puma-transport-helicopters-into-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/?p=1809","title":{"rendered":"RAF waves last Puma transport helicopters into retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>The UK Royal Air Force (RAF) has performed a series of farewell flights with its last Puma HC2 transport helicopters, as the veteran type bows out after almost 54 years of service.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The commemorative activity was completed by the RAF\u2019s Benson Oxfordshire-based 33 Sqn. That was followed a day later by the final flights made by RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus-deployed 84 Sqn.<\/p>\n<div class=\"inline_image  image_size_full\" data-attachment=\"108966\" data-sequence=\"2\">\n<div class=\"inline_meta\">\n<p class=\"inline_caption\">33 Sqn-operated Puma HC2s made a series of farewell flights around the UK on 26 March<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cThe retirement of the Puma at this point will enable avoidance of additional in-service costs and focus efforts on introducing Puma\u2019s replacement as quickly as possible,\u201d the RAF says.<\/p>\n<p>The type\u2019s overseas support role will be assumed from next year by six on-order Airbus Helicopters H145s, to be deployed in Brunei and Cyprus.\u00a0<strong>Boeing CH-47 Chinook transports<\/strong>\u00a0will be allocated to this task during the interim period.<\/p>\n<div class=\"inline_image  image_size_full\" data-attachment=\"108965\" data-sequence=\"1\">\n<p class=\"picture\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyloaded\" src=\"https:\/\/d3lcr32v2pp4l1.cloudfront.net\/Pictures\/480xany\/9\/6\/5\/108965_pumacypruscrowncopyright_823708_crop.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1023px) 100vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d3lcr32v2pp4l1.cloudfront.net\/Pictures\/480xany\/9\/6\/5\/108965_pumacypruscrowncopyright_823708_crop.jpg 480w,https:\/\/d3lcr32v2pp4l1.cloudfront.net\/Pictures\/600xany\/9\/6\/5\/108965_pumacypruscrowncopyright_823708_crop.jpg 600w,https:\/\/d3lcr32v2pp4l1.cloudfront.net\/Pictures\/780xany\/9\/6\/5\/108965_pumacypruscrowncopyright_823708_crop.jpg 780w\" alt=\"RAF Puma Cyprus farewell\" width=\"2225\" height=\"1276\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"inline_meta\">\n<p class=\"inline_source\"><cite>Source: Crown Copyright<\/cite><\/p>\n<p class=\"inline_caption\">Deployed operations of the Puma in Cyprus have also come to an end<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>But the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has yet to finalise a planned procurement via its New Medium Helicopter programme, which sees Leonardo Helicopters\u2019 AW149 as the lone remaining candidate.<\/p>\n<p>Seventeen Puma HC2s were in active use before the MoD\u2019s <strong>November 2024 announcement<\/strong>\u00a0that the type would leave use by the end of March this year. The RAF introduced the utility type to service in June 1971.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The UK Royal Air Force (RAF) has performed a series of farewell flights with its last Puma HC2 transport helicopters, as the veteran type bows out after almost 54 years [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[362,361],"class_list":["post-1809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-air","tag-puma","tag-raf"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/RAF-PUMA.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1809"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1848,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1809\/revisions\/1848"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}