RAF announces Puma Replacement plan
 

They could have bought a fleet of 225's for cheap if they had moved fast enough!

https://www.janes.com/defence-news/n...placement-plan

UK reveals Puma replacement plan

by Gareth Jennings



The United Kingdom is set to replace its Westland-Aerospatiale SA 330E Puma HC2 rotorcraft with a new aircraft type via its New Medium Helicopter (NMH) requirement.
https://www.janes.com/images/default...rsn=2e93669c_2While the Puma’s put of service date of 2025 has long been known, the UK had not revealed its plans for the type or the wider medium-lift helicopter capability after this date. Speaking at the Defence IQ virtual International Military Helicopter conference on 23 February, Colonel Paul Morris revealed the New Medium Helicopter requirement to replace it with a new type. (Crown Copyright)

Speaking at the Defence IQ virtual International Military Helicopter conference on 23 February, a senior military officer gave the first official indication that a replacement for the Puma is being sought.

The Royal Air Force (RAF) currently fields 23 Puma helicopters that were upgraded to the HC2 standard in the mid-2010s. With the airframes themselves dating back to the early 1970s, these helicopters are slated for retirement in 2025.

While no replacement for these helicopters has officially been touted before (options have previously included extending the type out of 2030 or losing the capability altogether), Colonel Paul Morris, Assistant Head Plans, Capability Air Manoeuvre, noted that the NMH requirement is being drawn up. The colonel did not disclose details but did say that the UK Rotary Wing Strategy is scoping potential options.

Talk about long winded.

The RAF were in serious discussions about the contenders for a Puma replacement when I began my first tour flying them in 1979. So, 42 years later....

Must be about due a Wessex replacement then:)

I think that was part of the same Air Staff Target. Unfortunately I can’t remember the AST number.

Very late edit: Having seen the last photo in the thread, the term “AST404” just came into my head…. I think that’s the correct one but it must have been forty years since. The memory is a strange thing.

But a military refit/modification would probably have cost more than a new one!

Better leave it to the professional negotiators.
Let them ponder somewhat more over it.
Then they buy new H225M from Airbus and negotiate some futile counter orders or the promise that Airbus will not pull their wing fabrication from the UK.
(which they are not planning anyway)

If the UK would want like-for-like replacement, the H215M could be a better option.

Bell 525 or Blackhawk.

No more eurotrash.

I watched him talk as attending the same conference this week, interesting points raised and it could conceivably FVL ..

cheers

4 years ago Bell touted a mil version of their 525 strangely enough ..

Blackhawk would have fitted AST whatever it was 3 and half decades ago but probably not for tomorrow’s battlefield. Then again ask any SHF aircre from that era and they be wishing we had UH-60 to replace the Wessex.


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....97ab602b7.jpeg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....02ccd658c.jpeg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....48cb7f758.jpeg

Times have changed. The Royal Air Force Puma replacement being announced by a Colonel.

The joys of JHC :)

Colonel Paul Morris, Assistant Head Plans, Capability Air Manoeuvre, - These days it's all about capability owners, not platforms.

I built the coffee bar in 33 Sqn. at Odiham before it was reformed. I was in the front of XW 204 with Trevor Wood on its first flight from Odiham.

When I die I will go to Hell. My Squadron boss will be a lieutenant commander and the station commander will be a women.

Trevor Wood who reported a bird strike if I remember correctly, managed to hit it sitting on its nest, if the green stained damaged rotor tips were to go by.

I wonder if my old SD hat is still hanging on the Hart’s antlers in the 33 Sqn crew room? It was still there in 1981 although it often disappeared for a few weeks at a time on detachment. Must be green by now.
pedro

Two things strike me of those images posted by Chopper,
One it’s low and long which must put the tail awfully low in battlefield scenarios, especially from a pilots position.
Assuming you have a crewman to control the pongoes, having 4 doors must be a nightmare, especially as you are blocked from controlling the ingress and egress from the front compartment by seating. One assumes after dropping off the SLF means the crewman will have to egress it to secure the doors..

Finger trouble :)... now sorted...now sorted.. ;)

You cannot get two full infantry sections in CEMO in a 330.

In a (Eurotrash?) H215M or H225M you can easily get two sections in CEMO plus a monster pile of ammunition. :ok: Bit of a hot n high issue with the H225M perhaps.

In a Bell 525 you can get an entire Divisional O Group, dressed in well-fitting smocks, complete with their laptops. :E

I guess this won't be spec'd by a Gunner though. :sad:

NH-90?
 

The Belgians have got some hardly used NH-90s in storage. I reckon we could get a good price.

NH90 would be a disaster. The best thing the U.K. could do is select a proven reliable airframe to fit this purpose.

LZ

Sounds like the usual partizan comments coming through already, with various vested interests trashing the oppositions machines. It always happens. The RAF/MOD will make its own decisions

TF