A second tranche of Chinook procurement is being planned to sustain the UK’s heavy lift capability beyond 2040, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed, with deliveries expected from the mid-2030s and further activity supporting the fleet through to at least 2060, though the Armed Forces face temporary reductions in both medium and heavy helicopter lift capacity while ageing fleets are replaced.
The detail came in a pair of written answers from Defence Minister Luke Pollard to Liberal Democrat MP James MacCleary, who asked about changes to vertical lift capability referenced in the recent Defence Investment Plan and about plans for future Chinook purchases. Pollard said operational analysis has confirmed an enduring requirement for both medium and heavy vertical lift, which he said perform “complementary roles across a range of military tasks and operating environments”.
Pollard set out the shape of the follow-on Chinook buy in the most detail to date. Chinook Capability Sustainment Programme Tranche 2 will replace legacy aircraft, with current planning assumptions envisaging contractual commitment through SDR30, the next Strategic Defence Review cycle, deliveries commencing in the mid-2030s and Initial Operating Capability in the latter part of that decade. The programme is distinct from Tranche 1, the previously approved procurement of fourteen H-47 Extended Range aircraft, the first of which is expected to be delivered to the UK from 2027.
The number of aircraft to be bought under Tranche 2 has not been settled, however, “The final number of aircraft to be procured, and the associated delivery profile, will be determined through future approvals and force design decisions based on the requirements, threat assessments and the technological changes to have taken place by then,” Pollard said, with the programme currently in its assessment phase.
The oldest Chinook Mk6A aircraft are being retired as they become “increasingly costly and difficult to sustain,” creating what the Minister acknowledged is “a temporary reduction in Heavy Vertical Lift capacity during the transition period before replacement aircraft are delivered and brought into service.”
A similar picture applies to medium lift, where the retirement of the Puma fleet “has resulted in a temporary reduction in Medium Vertical Lift capacity pending the introduction of the New Medium Helicopter capability, which is expected to enter service from 2030-31.” The Puma HC2 left RAF service in 2025 after more than five decades of Puma operations, with the New Medium Helicopter requirement to be met by the Leonardo AW149, to be built at the company’s Yeovil site, leaving a gap of several years in which the RAF fields no dedicated medium support helicopter.
The Department’s overall assessment, Pollard said, is that the reductions in both categories “are a consequence of replacing ageing fleets with more capable and sustainable aircraft” and are “understood, planned for, and addressed” through the New Medium Helicopter programme and the two-tranche Chinook recapitalisation, with the Defence Investment Plan providing for both. Sustainment of the fleet through to at least 2060 would see the Chinook serve a full century after the type’s first flight.
I detailed the numbers and consequences of this withdrawal in an earlier article, Tranche 2 is critical.
Meanwhile, as usual, the retirements/rationalisations/cuts/rebalancing happen quicker. leaving another gap.
It is known how long various items (I’m not restricting this to helicopters) can go before they need replacing. There is simply no excuse for there to be a ‘temporary reduction in capacity’ other than incompetence or penny pinching.
It would be interesting to know the process by which capability gaps have become the New Normal with zero public information being offered as to why this is acceptable. I get the bit about funding but are the relevant experts still wishing/hoping/betting the farm on there being no serious military existential threats before some unspecified date in the 2030s? I have never known such a total disconnect between recent Government statements and the actual decisions (or more properly lack of).
So will the fleet number be reduced or stay the same, with some just being the more modern variant….?
It reduces temporarily from 51 to 22, as the older HC6As are retired, plus the 14 newer ER as fast as they can come in, taking back up to 36.
Anything else is up in the air and probably not even funded, assuming money will be made available.
This is not just a military disaster in the making but also impacts the civilian support these aircraft can supply for fighting wildfires. I raised this with my local MP recently and got a nothing answer.
Agreed, real workhorses the Chinook fleet.
So in four years there will be a review, at which time we we may buy an undisclosed number of Chinooks. Got it.😏
Don’t believe a word that man says.
Can we not just join a couple of Wildcats together ? 🫡
Makes a terrible screeching noise when you do !!
So these new H47 new Chinooks for the RAF are long range that’s great but I do wonder would we not of been better off with the type the German Air force are buying I believe it’s the Chinook F version with the refuelling probe .
The version that the RAF are buying is the H-47(ER) Extended Range, the Germans are buying the CH-47F SR Standard Range both variants will be equipped with the refuelling probe
Am I right in understanding that the “ER” purchase is supposed to fill the niche for special forces when C130 left?
It’s designed for long range insertion of SF so in some ways it is.
Thank mate that’s good to know 👍
More cuts to defence hidden by obtuse and confusing language calculated to deceive.
Id posit that this is a forced hand.
Current assesments of future war overtly and explicitly specify the extreme high risk of helicopter transport.
I do understand the civil use argument and the advantages of heavy lift in air environments that are not denied by enemy.
Imo the Chinook is not suited to future war and heavy lift is only useable in very few scenarios……
Further purchase is waste of tightarse taxpayers money that should be directed towards less marginal contingency provision.
Sorry Dan you clearly don’t understand the objective. We need more high end blingy chinooks not for the grunts on the ground slogging it out with Russian mechanised forces but so our tier one operators and senior officers can keep up with the Jones’s in Delta force. 😀
There is always some tribes men or religious extremist somewhere in need of a shwacking.
You stupid little faggot Jim how dare you suggest that – back to trolling again are we? You know what’s going to happen now, don’t you?
Chinooks do a lot more than SF insertion. They along with A400 have been repeatedly suggested as long range launch platforms for UAVs. More traditionally they are also the best, if not the only, helicopter suitable for moving engineering and light combat vehicles around. There isn’t much else capable of underslung carriage of a Terrier.
Plus Marine insertion and the extra range to allow self deployment to Akrotiri, Chinooks aren’t going anywhere.
So the design will be a century old by the time we plan to stop using it.
Sadly there’s no realistic alternative at the moment. The CH53 although it can lift more, is slower and costs significantly more. Though it is more suited to maritime operations. There have been a few models and drawing of what a future heavy vertical lift might look like, from quad tilt-rotors, tiltwings and very short take-off and landing aircraft. But nothing of substance has been developed. I believe the impetus will come from the US Army, who will be looking at replacing their Chinooks by 2040.
Mumbo jumbo. Another huge gap in capability. Step forward the MOD. and take a bow. At least they are consistently useless.
Not sure if anyone has read the statement from the RAF today but some interesting stuff going on. Voyagers will be equipped with a boom system, E7 numbers not settled, the RAF wants more than the 3 we have. CCA To be in operation by 2030 alongside Typhoon. Full air power statement to be issued in the Autumn updating that last one from 2018.
Also UK is procuring more A400M via a joint European initiative.
What a lot of drug crazed bullshit
Cheers Jim, well that escaped me, E7, no chance, that boats sailed, with our two surplus radar arrays going on the two US prototypes being built at Birmingham.
Voyager equipped with a boom, I find that extremely unlikely, probably the next tanker, but not this one as Air Tankers contract is up in 2035.
Additional A400 would be ‘very’ welcome, 8 needed to replace the lost 14 C130J.
CCA, I find very unlikely before 2035, it won’t be cheap and it will be tied to potential Carrier adaptability too, unless thats now been abandoned?
I suspect a contract will be announced as part of SDSR30, with fielding from 2035.
Check article on aviation week from the chief of the air staff.
What’s the source for that mate?
Just checked the MoD home page and RAF page online, plus the official X feed of both. Where was this statement?
Yep just read it , an interesting read . Encouraged by some of it , particularly the piece concerning Wedgetail and the need for more , a no brainer to me . Less happy about the implication that they are looking again at the F35 A/B mix . Kind of implies more A’s and fewer B’s with the RN being the looser again . Don’t get me wrong I am actually a bit of a supporter of the decision to buy some A’s if it means we get back.into the sub strategic nuclear piece , less keen however that Uncle Sam will still own the warheads , particularly under the current regime . If we are going to go that road however and which now seems certain we need more than 12. A special missions squadron of 18 – 24 F35A to cover the nuclear mission but also if carrying JSM like most of our serious allies now plan to be and as a result able to do long range stealthy conventional strike which would make a lot of sense . I still caveat this however with saying not at the expense of F35B which I wouldn’t want to see come down below a minimum fleet of 72. Additional A400M – where you see that ? I read through the ACM’ s speech and couldn’t find any thing more recent than a wish list dating back to 2025 , good news too however if so and particularly if fitted with an air to air refuelling capability in order to support the new probe equipped long range Chinook fleet.
The A400M will be the only realistic option, now we have no Hercs. Otherwise it could be a Chinook buddy to buddy refuelling.
Great to see yet more amazing forward planning by retiring capability before buying its replacement. All very good until we find ourselves actually needing to fight a war.
If we don’t loose the next war we fight it will be a miracle.
If we end up fighting an actual war in Europe we will be driving to the battlefield. These helicopters won’t be going anywhere near an A2/AD bubble. Like tanks they still have niche roles to play but no way we need 60.
You need to get some sleep mate.
I’m guessing you are on holiday ?
What a lot of drug crazed bullshit!
Go and have a lie down mate
Who knows what the next war is going to be like. In Afghanistan and Iraq helicopters were desperately in demand. Same in the Falklands only we didn’t have them so everyone had to walk. Drones have changed the front line but logistics and mobility still matter.
I agree we don’t need 60.
And we don’t, 9 were already cut before to go down to 51, including “BN.”
Germany, also in the thick of it regards war in Europe and A2AD, wants 60!!!
My preduction, tranche 2 never happens and we’ll see statements in the 2030s that “all our commitments” are met bla blah blah.
It’s no surprise at all to me just WHY so many despair and bitch and moan.
Just as Wildcat goes in the AAC, and there is no medium RAF heli capability.
Immaculate timing.
HMG, MoD, take a bow…….
👏 👏 👏 👏 👏 👏
Have you ever seen a Chinook low and fast, Jim? I once watched an air show on a slight plateau where the Wokka came up a nearby river valley at zero altitude and was overhead before we heard it. Even at normal operating height around Odiham they can surprise you coming from behind a hill, air defence is a trickier game than the numbers suggest.
Even running heavy, a Chinnook has to throttle back so Apache escorts can keep up.
They have massive reserves of power and lift and can really move – they are also astonishingly agile.
If they’re retiring all the Army Wildcats would it be worth while getting an uptake in AW149 numbers from the 23 or whatever it is? Another half dozen?
What happening to these Wildcats, are any being transferred to the Navy and or kept as spares?
They are being re-homed in various Zoos.
Or given to Ukraine maybe 🫡
😼Grhhhh.
The time to purchase replacement Chinooks was about ten years ago, when the initial 31 were getting elderly and needing upgrades and increased maintenance. There simply wasn’t the money in the RAF budget to do so, as Chinook is an expensive buy. This is yet another legacy from previous governments, with the can being kicked down the road. The 14 ERs is a good start but numbers will undoubtedly drop well below 51 before this tranche 2 purchase comes along.
The threat to helicopters on the modern A2AD battlefield needs to be viewed in perspective. Chinook’s main role in a peer war is to fly in equipment, munitions and personnel to division and extract battlefield casualties to rear area field hospitals. It would be vulnerable if flying in to support forward brigades in action, so it is likely Chinook ops will be to Divisional area in the future, with material going forward to brigade being transported by road.
As ever no promises we don’t end with newer but fewer. Starmer really meant it when he said we must put our country on a war footing, more like war on want. I hope his brass mantle clock reflects his contribution as we welcome the next buffoon.
Imagine that retiring old aircraft years before we buy new! The DIP is there anything that on it we will get before 2030 4+ years away
We need to stop trying to reinvent the wheel when what we have works and works well. We need to buy off the shelf and stop trying to make things special and unique like our own variants of the ah64 or our failed effort at a special forces Chinook variant which ended in failure and five aircraft being downgraded to regular airframes after ten years doing nothing..
The only problem is the RAF having control over the medium and heavy lift fleet which ruins the operational capacity and doctrine as they have the fleet air arm.
Merlin was never fit for purpose and should never have been bought. Nor should we have purchased the f35 which will punish us for a decade until we just scrap them as not fit for purpose
The trick is to go UK bespoke where it is the right choice and fund it properly when we do…. Agree the Chinook mk3 was a travesty, mostly due to trying to do it on the cheap. The UK apache mk1 on the other hand was better than the US 64D. In Afghanistan for eg, ours could fly with the radar fitted while the US ones couldnt due to engine limitations.
It was ‘better’ for barely a year – then it became an orphan aircraft too expensive to update
Total guff! Wildcat to go, a massive reduction of Chinook, down to around 20 with a slow buy and delivery tranche 1 uplift of 14, and certainly no tranche 2, as that’s just a load of horseshit to try to shut people up. Tranche 2, probably 2 or more elections away, that can will hoofed down the road till it disappears.
I’ve said this a few times now, the UK Government assessment is that we will “likely” be in conflict with Russia by 2030! So it’s great news the DiP has provided a third of what has been requested and deemed to be necessary, by the 2035 timeframe! Let’s not be bullshitting ourselves, the costings for the DiP has come from actual reductions and removal of entire platforms from service and the delay (future cancellations) of further systems and assets. Yet again this North Korean light Government pays pure lip service to defence and the protection of the land and its people, as long as its voter base remains fed, waters and cosseted for free!
Exactly mate.
The Chinooks are the true backbone of UK military lift, but they are VERY hard worked.
Money will be found to sustain this fleet – without it, everything collapses
While there will be no medium-lift capability in RAF colours after the retirement of the Puma fleet, the CHF’s Merlin HC4 ‘Junglies’ remain in service. The reduction in Chinook numbers is the bigger issue perhaps given their workload. The withdrawal of all Wildcat helos makes sense given lessons from Ukraine (Russian losses particularly) but what will replace them, not just in AAC but also CHF use at sea? 🧐