About 320 helicopters fulfil various roles in the UK armed forces, includ-ing troop and equipment transport, flying training, and a plethora of special mis-sion sets. Operational pressures are forcing changes within the fleet, however, with plans afoot to replace many platforms. The process of configuring the helicopters of the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) for Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 21, the first operational deployment of the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth in the autumn of 2021, is taking up much of Royal Navy (RN) planners' time. The Royal Air Force (RAF), meanwhile, is hoping to replace some of the 60 heavy-lift Boeing Chinooks with 16 new extended-range examples and questions remain over whether the 23 Airbus Helicop-ters (Westland/Aerospatiale) Puma medium transports, which are celebrating 50 years of operations this year, will survive the government's upcoming Integrated Security, Defence, and Foreign Policy Review.
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