page_title: Boeing Chinook (UK variants)
section_title: Overview
hierarchical_section_title: Boeing Chinook (UK variants) / Operational history / Overview
caption_attribution_description: The Royal Air Force Chinook, sits on the flightline warming up on the Airfield. Combined Joint Training Field Exercise (CJTFEX) 96. In Camp Davis, North Carolina (NC) United States of America.
context_page_description: The Boeing Chinook is a large, tandem rotor helicopter operated by the Royal Air Force. A series of variants based on the United States Army's Boeing CH-47 Chinook, the RAF Chinook fleet is the largest outside the United States. RAF Chinooks have seen extensive service in the Falklands War, the Balkans, Northern Ireland, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
  The Chinook aircraft, normally based at RAF Odiham, provides heavy-lift support and transport across all branches of the British armed forces. The RAF has a total of 60 Chinooks in active inventory as of 2015. In 2018, the UK issued a request to the United States to purchase 16 additional aircraft. The Chinook is expected to remain in RAF service until the 2040s.
context_section_description: RAF Chinooks have been widely deployed in support of British military engagements, serving their first wartime role in Operation Corporate, the Falklands War, in 1982. Chinooks were used in Operation Granby in the 1991 Gulf War, attached to large peace-keeping commitments in the Balkans, the continued British presence in Afghanistan, and in Operation Telic in the 2003 Iraq War. They provide routine supply and support missions to the British military, notably in Operation Banner in Northern Ireland. The helicopter has also been of use in military humanitarian missions and the extraction of civilians from warzones, such as the evacuation of Sierra Leone in 2000, and the evacuation from Lebanon in 2006.
  One Chinook in particular, known by its original squadron code Bravo November, has come to widespread public recognition due to its remarkable service record. It has seen action in every major operation involving the RAF in the helicopter's almost 40-year service life, including the Falkland Islands, Lebanon, Germany, Northern Ireland, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
caption: RAF Chinook at Camp Davis in 1996
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