Boeing Chinook (UK variants)

Chinook
Chinook HC6A of 18 Sqn RAF in 2020
General information
Type	Transport helicopter
Manufacturer	Boeing Defense, Space & Security
Status	In service
Primary user	Royal Air Force
History
Introduction date	1980 with RAF
First flight	23 March 1980 (HC1)
Developed from	Boeing CH-47 Chinook

The Boeing Chinook is a large, tandem rotor helicopter operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF). 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.^[1] RAF Chinooks have seen extensive service in the Falklands War, the Balkans, Northern Ireland, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

The Chinook, normally based at RAF Odiham in England, provides heavy-lift support and transport across all branches of the British armed forces since the early 1980s.^[2] The RAF has a total of sixty Chinooks in active inventory as of 2015.^[3] In 2018, the UK issued a request to the United States to purchase sixteen additional rotorcraft.^[4] The Chinook is expected to remain in RAF service until the 2040s.^[5]