Puma Helicopter Retires From UK Service After More Than 50 Years
At the time of its formal withdrawal today, March 31, the RAF had 23 Pumas on strength, all of which had been upgraded to the definitive HC2 standard. However, months in advance of the retirement, the main operating base at RAF Benson, England, had already begun putting Pumas into storage. The announcement that the Puma fleet would be withdrawn by the end of this month came last November, as part of sweeping cuts of the U.K. Armed Forces, as you can read about here. By that time, the frontline Puma fleet was reduced to 17 active aircraft.
As well as the Pumas, 14 of the oldest Chinook heavy-lift helicopters used by the RAF were also slated to be removed from service.
The farewell flight by three Pumas — callsign WARLOCK flight — out of Benson on March 26 took in various locations that held an important place in the type's RAF career.
Among them was Northern Ireland, where the Puma was heavily involved during The Troubles, providing support and transport for the British Army, as well as during subsequent peacekeeping efforts.
Key training bases and exercise areas, including Cranwell, Halton, Honington, Shawbury, and the Stanford Training Area (STANTA), were also included.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by RAF Benson (@rafbensonofficial)
Meanwhile, Boscombe Down and Airbus Kidlington were on the itinerary, these sites having been central for the maintenance and operational upkeep of the RAF Pumas in their last years of service.
'This flight route is via various locations of significance,' said Wing Commander Nick Monahan, the commanding officer of No. 33 Squadron and Puma Force Commander. 'Each place reflects the rich history and contributions that the Puma has made during its time in service. The aircraft has been a cornerstone of global defense operations for more than five decades. We want to celebrate its contribution to supporting our people around the world over the past 54 years.'
RAF Pumas from 33 Squadron depart from @RAFBenson for the final time.The Puma has been in Service for 54 years and begin its draw down on 31 March.Introduced in 1971, it has been successfully deployed in various Operations & humanitarian missions.
https://t.co/kRXSDV7Rripic.twitter.com/3tlEsl8mVI
— Royal Air Force (@RoyalAirForce) March 27, 2025
Two more farewell flypasts took place at the RAF Puma's other final operating locations: Brunei, on the island of Borneo, where the helicopter supported a battalion of the British Army's Royal Gurkha Rifles, and Cyprus, where the type equipped the RAF's last remaining dedicated search and rescue squadron. The Cyprus-based Pumas were also used to support British military activities on the island and for aerial firefighting.
Designed by Aérospatiale of France and built in the United Kingdom by Westland, the Puma first entered RAF service in 1971. Initially, its primary mission was carrying troops and logistics, as well as casualty evacuation, which it was expected to do on the battlefield if NATO had ever gone to war with the Warsaw Pact on the Central Front.
The Puma could carry 12 fully equipped troops or up to 4,400 pounds of freight, the latter moved as internal cargo or underslung, or a mix of the two. For casualty evacuation, it could be configured with up to six stretchers.
The helicopter soon gained a reputation for agility, speed, and versatility during the course of multiple overseas operations and humanitarian relief missions. As well as in Northern Ireland and Belize, the RAF Puma saw notable operational service in Rhodesia, in the 1991 and 2003 conflicts in Iraq, and in the former Yugoslavia, where it contributed to the U.K. effort as part of the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR).
Of the 48 original Puma HC1 variants, 24 were upgraded to HC2 standard, one of these being lost on operations in Afghanistan. The Puma HC2 featured more powerful Makila 1A1 turboshaft engines, increased range, new composite tail rotor blades, and a modern digital cockpit, among other changes, collectively known as the Puma Life Extension Programme (LEP).
The first upgraded Puma HC2s entered RAF service in September 2012, followed by an initial release to service in August 2015.
Once upgraded, Pumas saw extensive service in Afghanistan between 2015 and 2021.
The RAF Puma helicopters and personnel that formed the 'Toral Aviation Detachment' in Kabul, Afghanistan have returned to @RAFBenson after over 6 years service in support of @NATO Operations.Read more: https://t.co/3HtzNNpp0t pic.twitter.com/BTLEo2xc1v
— Royal Air Force (@RoyalAirForce) July 16, 2021
'It's a great aircraft for the operations we've been on,' Squadron Leader Niall Davidson, second-in-command of No. 33 Squadron, told Forces News. 'Be that Northern Ireland, Iraq, Afghanistan.'
He continued: 'It's a great aircraft for getting in and out of really tight urban sites, even in high altitudes of Kabul we are able to lift troops out of really tight sites and keep them off the roads.'
"Still looks great" after 54 years
The RAF is bidding farewell to the Puma after it has served for more than 50 years.Sqn Ldr Niall Davidson has commended the outgoing aircraft on its years of service.Read more
https://t.co/nbB1F9cB70pic.twitter.com/QQbSLK44Pt
— BFBS Forces News (@ForcesNews) March 30, 2025
Other recent Puma assignments included Operation Ruman, providing humanitarian support in the Caribbean after Hurricane Irma struck in September 2017. In the United Kingdom, the Puma was active in the response to the COVID pandemic, under Operation Rescript in 2020.
In Belize and Cyprus, the Puma's role will be taken on as of next year by six Jupiter (Airbus H145) helicopters, a type that the RAF otherwise primarily uses for advanced training.
As for the bulk of the RAF Puma fleet, a replacement is still to be decided.
Last month, it was reported that the United Kingdom was 'close' to deciding on a type for its New Medium Helicopter (NMH) requirement. This is the program to replace the Puma, but it's been dogged by delays, cost concerns, and the withdrawal of two of the three bidding vendors.
Expected to be worth $1.5 billion, the NMH competition calls for up to 44 new rotorcraft, although, should the program survive, it's likely to be trimmed down to 23–30 helicopters. As well as the Puma, the NMH is intended to replace the six shadowy 'Blue Thunder' AS365N3 Dauphin IIs that are used in support of special forces operations, notably by the Special Air Service (SAS).
Previously, the Airbus Helicopters H175M, Leonardo AW149, and Lockheed Martin S-70M Black Hawk were all in the running for NMH, but last year, both Airbus Helicopters and Lockheed Martin withdrew their participation. The companies said that they couldn't fulfill the requirement within the budget provided. While it might be expected that Leonardo has now sealed the competition, there are still questions about whether it will survive, at least in its current form, amid a time of tough defense procurement decisions.
As for the retired Pumas, it's also unclear what will happen to them.
While old, the airframes have been upgraded and well looked after and they could well be attractive on the secondhand market, provided they are not scrapped.
An alternative might be to donate them to Ukraine, which would surely find a use for them. Kyiv has also previously received helicopters retired by the U.K. Armed Forces, specifically former Royal Navy Sea Kings. Meanwhile, Portugal has also donated eight Pumas to Ukraine, so there would be some useful type commonality.
Whatever happens next to the ex-RAF Pumas, there's no doubt that these venerable rotorcraft provided invaluable service to the British Armed Forces over a remarkably long period.
Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Newsweek
7 hours ago
- Newsweek
Abandoned Dog Found Tied Up With Heartbreaking Note: 'Don't Want Him Back'
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. An abandoned dog, found tied up at the park with a note, landed in the right hands, despite the unfortunate circumstances. Erica Loring received a call from a neighbor who found a pup tethered at the local park. As someone who has fostered countless canines, Loring knew she needed to step in and help. She arrived to find the dog, Juniper, calmly lying on the sidewalk, tied to the park's entrance sign. He greeted her with happy tail wags and sniffs. The note read: "Just got him and it was too much for me. Nice dog. Can't keep him and the original owner doesn't want him back. Please help." Loring immediately took Juniper to the car, and he hopped in, no questions asked. She said in her June 27 Instagram video to the account @super_scooty that the dog seemed to be thrilled about driving in the car. It was as if he knew a better life was in his future. Screenshots from a June 27 Instagram video of a dog tied up to a park sign, left, and abandoned with a note, right. Screenshots from a June 27 Instagram video of a dog tied up to a park sign, left, and abandoned with a note, right. @super_scooty/Instagram However, because no one was available to be an immediate foster to Juniper, Loring brought him to the San Diego Humane Society. A dog in her home prevented her from taking him back to her place. "I knew the SD Humane Society is the best-possible no-kill shelter in the country," Loring told Newsweek via Instagram. "We have an amazing program here. I dropped him off, but I went to visit him every day." Every day since then, Loring came bearing doggy treats and smothering Juniper with love. She posted daily videos about the pup, cautious that he wouldn't slip through the cracks and be forgotten, but, soon enough, seven families expressed their interest in adopting him, Loring said. One family got matched with a different pit bull, which freed up space in a foster home and allowed Juniper to move in once his stray hold time expired. "Because the families came from various areas of the country, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, northern California, etc., we didn't know how long it would take to actually get people to come visit him," Loring said. "We decided to foster him while we figure out who was the perfect home for him." Within a week, Juniper's forever family came and adopted him. She said they absolutely adore him and his "big personality." Juniper has especially taken to the family's child, with the two being inseparable. Viewer Reactions The Instagram video, which reached almost 1 million views as of Tuesday, instantly left people heartbroken, but they applauded Loring's selfless and quick action. "Glad you took that horrible collar off he was left with," posted a viewer. Another added: "I'm sick of this world. What a sweet boy. I wish I could take all the animals." A third person commented: "Can you imagine if someone tied up a baby to a tree and left a note? To me, it's literally the same thing." Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@ with some details about your best friend, and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.
Time Magazine
12 hours ago
- Time Magazine
The Unspoken Etiquette of Mourning on Social Media
When Molly Levine, 28, lost her father in the summer of 2023, 'life stopped.' Just weeks earlier, she had been dating, posting comedic TikToks, and balancing a high-stress product job at Google with sweaty nights out in New York. Now, she could barely get out of bed. She took leave from work and holed up with her family, surviving on chunks of chocolate babka she'd eat late at night, when everyone had cleared out of the family kitchen. Reading about death, finding meaning in memories, and searching for signs from the other side consumed her days. But another, more frivolous concern gnawed at her. 'After you lose someone, you have to immediately decide whether you're going to be one of those people who posts or not,' Levine says. 'And I know people say, 'There's no right way to grieve,' but on social media—it almost feels like there is.' What do you share? When do you share it? And is it bad if you don't post at all? These were the questions that tormented Levine in the weeks after her father's death. 'It feels silly,' she says. 'You're like, 'Is this what I'm really thinking about?' But you are.' Grief gone viral Jensen Moore, a journalism professor at The University of Oklahoma, studies how people grieve on social media. '[Millennials and Gen Z] post their breakfast. They post themselves on the toilet. They've done everything,' she says. 'So mourning online is just an extension of living their lives online for everyone to see.' Ten days after her father's passing, Levine crafted a 350-word caption to accompany a photo of her father to post on Instagram. Comments and DMs from her community poured in, offering their memories and condolences. But Levine, a social media savvy young millennial, knew the line between sharing and scaring. 'I really refined my message,' she says. 'I was very cognizant of how uncomfortable I could make other people.' As social media reshapes how we share—and grieve—there are many for whom public mourning still feels gauche, even offensive. Vogue editor Chloe Malle notably loathes mourning-by-emoji. 'An Instagram feed is just too public a platform for meaningful mourning,' she wrote in her 2014 essay, 'Why We Should Give Up Public Mourning on Social Media.' Yet, others are crucified for not posting quickly enough—like when 90210 fans attacked Jenny Garth for her silence after Luke Perry's death, or when the internet turned on the Friends cast for waiting days to acknowledge Matthew Perry's passing. In one of her studies, Moore examined how people self-police online grief. 'It used to be, you would never post a picture of someone grieving or a photo of the deceased,' Moore says. 'This generation is posting TikToks of themselves crying.' In 2013, the millennial 'funeral selfie' trend broke the internet, triggering a flood of commentary about the generation's perceived apathy and vanity. Over a decade later and the conversation still hasn't moved beyond moral panic. 'Do I have a photo with them? It's the first thing you think of when someone dies,' says Jay Bulger, a 43-year-old filmmaker from D.C. 'It's a mad scramble to post.' When Kobe Bryant died tragically in 2020, social media became one giant memorial. But mourners were criticized. 'Why are you sobbing online about a basketball player you didn't know?' Moore recalls the pushback. Public grief often reads as strategic—an invitation for sympathy, likes, or cultural proximity. Some call this new wave of mourning content 'performative grief,' says Moore. 'Because those likes can potentially earn you more followers, or in some cases, money.' But for those genuinely trying to express their loss, the online landscape can feel like a minefield: sincere grief is often met with suspicion, judgment, or the assumption that it's all for show. 'I have friends who've been very vocal with their grief, and people didn't know how to handle it,' Levine says. She recalls a conversation with friends, criticizing someone's post for being too raw, too unfiltered. 'People just don't know what to do with grief. We don't know how to talk about it without freaking people out.' Read More: When the Group Chat Replaces the Group There are practical reasons for grieving online, says Pelham Carter, a psychology professor at Birmingham City University. It spreads the word. It offers catharsis and connection. Engaging with a deceased person's profile can help sustain a bond beyond the grave. But every post, photo, or story risks transgressing invisible social landmines of what is and isn't acceptable. 'There are these very nuanced rules that are hard to navigate, because they are unwritten,' Carter explains. 'But you get a feeling for when there's been a breach in etiquette.' For Jack Irv, a 30-year-old actor who grew up in New York City, the entire production of grieving on social media 'feels exhibitionist.' In his early 20s, he was part of the city's graffiti scene, climbing up scaffoldings to spray paint with some of the city's best artists. But 'graffiti writers die all the time,' he says. It was the first time he saw his network mourning publicly. 'You get forced into action,' Irv explains. 'It's like proving who is closer. There's a competitive aspect.' Social media can breed competition and comparison, which extends to online grief, says Moore. 'Who's grieving better, who wrote the best eulogy, who posted the best photo, who was closest,' she says. Irv resents the tone of these posts—'It's like a long rambling story about the time they spilled making pasta together.' It feels cheap, he says, that intimacy gets flattened into a caption. Irv recalls in one instance, an acquaintance who was not especially close to the deceased, became the loudest mourner online. 'It made us all feel strange,' he says. Navigating grief's social hierarchy online can be fraught, Carter says. Posting too soon or too often can give the impression you were closer to the deceased than others believe you were. 'It's bumping yourself higher up in the hierarchy than people feel you should be,' says Carter. 'But it's very hard for us, especially in the throes of grief, to acknowledge that there are different forms of closeness.' Who gets to mourn online? In a 2022 study, Carter and co-author Rachel King found a striking disconnect: participants saw their own grief posts as genuine—but assumed others were just seeking attention. Most cited a 'genuine outpouring of grief' as their reason for posting. Yet they believed others were abusing the process. 'There was a hypocritical side,' Carter says. 'People assumed their grief was sincere—but others' were performative.' In 2019, Jennifer, 30, who asked that TIME not include her real name because of the sensitivity of the circumstance, lost a close friend to suicide. The loss sent shockwaves through her tightknit friend group. 'Privately, there were vulnerable conversations between friends where the grief felt real,' she recalls. 'But online, something shifted.' On Instagram, she says, the mourning felt curated. 'It felt more like perception management than actual grief.' In the weeks after her friend's death, unspoken rules emerged. 'The etiquette was: those closest to the deceased had the right to post, and their posts should be engaged with. If you weren't in the inner circle, the rule was: don't post,' she says. These rules were administered via cold shoulders and whispers. Digital anthropologist Crystal Abidin interviewed young people experiencing the first death of a friend to explore a core question: who gets to grieve, how, and why? She found the tension had less to do with competition between mourners and more to do with how grief was received by the inner circle. The young women in Abidin's study outlined unwritten rules: who gets to grieve first, who gets to grieve more, and what must stay private. Breaches often came down to timing—like posting before a partner or family member. On Facebook memorial pages, they didn't want the first post coming from a random friend. 'There's weight given to your tie to the deceased,' Abidin says. As consumers of the internet, 'we're savvy,' says linguist Korina Giaxoglou, author of A Narrative Approach to Social Media Mourning. 'Even at our most sincere, we still want our posts to reach and engage—that's what posting is.' But that doesn't make us hypocrites, she adds. 'You can want attention and still be fully present in your grief.' Read More: When TikTok Trends Send Kids to the Emergency Room In Western culture, open grief is often frowned upon, Giaxoglou says. There is an understanding that 'during the bereavement period you shouldn't seek attention.' But in other cultures, grief is communal. In the Asia Pacific region, where Abidin conducts much of her research, grieving loudly and publicly is 'how you show that you're a part of that community.' She says, 'It's not uncommon in some funerals to hire mourners whose jobs are to cry, because the louder the cries, the more it shows how loved this person was.' As younger generations move grief from bedrooms and chatrooms to public profiles, conversations around death are returning to the public square. 'As a community, we need to see these expressions in order to recover,' Giaxoglou says. 'Otherwise, it's like we're hiding our emotions.' A year later, Levine has developed a dark humor about grieving online. 'In some ways, if you don't post about your grief, it's like—did you even care?' she says with a smile. She remembers staring at her Instagram grid, wondering how to follow up a memorial post of her father: 'What's my re-entry going to be? I don't want to signal that I'm over it. I'll be grieving forever.' Years later, Levine is once again making funny videos on TikTok. 'I look back now, and wonder what changed where I was like, 'Okay, now I can post a sunset again.''
Tom's Guide
13 hours ago
- Tom's Guide
This underrated plant has filled my yard with color all summer — and it's ideal for container gardening
There's a little-known plant that I discovered just a few years ago, and now it's become one of my favorite plants that I add to my yard for summer color. While I always plant hydrangeas, lavender, and pelargoniums — as they are among my favorite flowers — I'm also going to be adding this pretty plant to my regular list of must-haves to enjoy in my garden. And surprisingly, this plant that I find exquisite is not spoken about as much in gardening circles as my other favorites, but I want to change all that. My latest favorite is Lantana camara. The Royal Horticultural Society describes it as an 'evergreen shrub with sometimes prickly stems bearing wrinkled, ovate leaves and terminal clusters of salver-shaped flowers 1 cm across.' I don't think the description does it justice, and when you see it for yourself, you'll understand why. I first came across it at a local yard sale, where a nearby plantsman was selling an array of delights at the front of his house. He'd left an honesty box for payments, and as the plant was unlabelled, I had no one to ask what it was. Then, after posting a picture of it on Instagram, a garden designer friend told me it was a Lantana camara. Although I'm all for asking garden friends for advice, if I needed to identify a plant today, I'd quickly take a snap of it and use one of the latest plant finder apps, like Palmstreet or Pl@ntNet, to discover what it was. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. With a diameter of 12 inches across the top and 6.5 inches across the bottom, this 2-gallon pot is suitable for indoor and outdoor plants. It also comes with a saucer to prevent indoor or outdoor furniture becoming damaged with water marks. The pots feature an attractive vine design. Lantana camara is referred to as common lantana or 'Florida Flower', and it's a species of flowering plant in the verbena family that's native to the American tropics. It's a perennial shrub that typically grows to around 6.5 feet and can form dense thickets, but it can also be grown as an annual in locations that experience frosts. However, the downside of growing lantana is that it can be invasive in many areas, including Florida, Arizona, and Hawaii, which is why in these locations it's best grown in a container, which just happens to be my preference. The flowers are small and tubular, with each one having four petals, and they are arranged in clusters. The flowers come in red, yellow, white, pink and orange, although I favor the pink and yellow combo. Tutti fruityAlthough it's not obvious unless you rub the petals, the flowers have a tutti fruity smell, and there's even a variety that goes by the name — Lantana 'Calippo Tutti Frutti'. It's a tender evergreen shrub that grows to 18 inches. The Royal Horticultural Society states that its blooms 'emerge yellow, then change color to orange, then red, and finally pink as they age, with all colors appearing in a single flowerhead.' Lantanas are ideal if you're looking for a low-maintenance plant that will fill your borders and containers with color. I've stuck to using it as a container plant so far, but I'm tempted to plant it in my borders too. And apart from bringing color to your backyard they are a magnet for bees, butterflies and hummingbirds, and will reward you in droves. Growing conditions Lantana thrives in warm, sunny conditions and will tolerate heat, drought, and full sun, and it will keep flowering throughout the summer, rewarding you with colorful blooms. It will grow well in U.S. hardiness zones 7-11, but check the variety before you buy to see if this differs. Lantana prefers a well-draining, neutral soil and temperatures about 55°F, and will appreciate a humid environment and being kept moist. Plus, if the temperature stays above 55°F year round, you can expect it to keep blooming too. However, be careful if you have pets, as Lantana is toxic to dogs and cats. 1. Lantana will do best where it can get six hours of sunlight per day. 2. Keep it well watered and don't let the soil dry out. 3. Grow it in a container in tropical and subtropical regions to avoid it becoming invasive. It will prefer a pot with restricted root growth rather than a container that's oversized, so ensure you add a well-draining soil. 4. Deadhead the spent blooms to encourage further blooms.
