The UK government has said that “mitigations” have been placed on British military jungle warfare training taking place in Brunei, resulting from the decision to retire the Puma HC2 helicopters in 2024 without a ready replacement.
Detailed in a parliamentary written response on 7 May, UK government officials revealed that the Jungle Warfare Division delivers two June Jungle Warfare Instructors and two Operational Tracking Instructor courses per year in Brunei for military training.
Since 5 July 2024, the Jungle Warfare Division has delivered four courses.
“Mitigations against jungle training in Brunei are in place. The six Airbus H145 HC2 Jupiter helicopters will deploy and commence operational activity in 2026,” stated Luke Pollard, UK Defence Minister, on 7 May.
The British Army maintains a cadre of jungle warfare trainers in Brunei, along with a battalion drawn from the Royal Gurkha Rifles on rotation. The Puma HC2 fleet provided search-and-rescue (SAR) capability for UK forces operating in the country, a critical safety backup for the highly complex and hazardous training environment.
In late-2024 the UK government first stated that it could seek to place unspecified mitigations in place on jungle warfare training in Brunei. What such mitigations are, both then and now, have not been disclosed.
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By GlobalData“We continuously review and adjust training procedures to maintain both operational effectiveness and personnel safety,” a UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) spokesperson told Army Technology on 13 May.
It was thought that the medium-lift Puma helicopters would remain in service until 2026 when their replacement H145 aircraft, obtained from Airbus in a £122m ($162.3m) deal, were due to begin entering service.
However, widespread defence cuts in 2024 raised the prospect of not having a rotary SAR capability in Brunei between March 2025, when the Puma’s left service, and revised in-service date of the H145 of 2026.
The UK Puma fleet has undergone an extensive modernisation programme in the mid-2010s.
First of the new H145s arrive in UK
The announced arrival on 12 May of the first of the six planned H145 helicopters that will fulfill the SAR role in Cyprus and Brunei, in place on the HC2 fleet, will have come as a boost to the UK military.
Flown by the RAF’s 84 Squadron in Cyprus and 667 Squadron of the Army Air Corps in Brunei, the aircraft will primarily be used to support aerial firefighting and jungle training respectively, stated the UK’s Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S), an arm of the MoD.
Test and evaluation of the helicopter is now underway at MoD Boscombe Down, including flight trials.
Of note is the admission that the H145 fleet, known as the Jupiter HC Mk2 in British service, in Cyprus and Brunei will “almost exclusively” be maintained by Airbus contractors, rather than the UK military.
According to the RAF, the Puma HC2 is capable of carrying 16 passengers, 12 fully equipped troops or up to two tonnes of freight, the latter moved as internal cargo or underslung, or a mix of the two. It can also be fitted with up to six stretchers for operations in the casualty evacuation or medical emergency response team role.
Primarily used in civil aviation, Airbus’ H145 is a smaller aircraft, able to accommodate up to 10 passengers, or two stretchers and three medical crew for emergency medical services missions.
By the same ratio of civilian passengers to military personnel, the H145 could embark around six fully equipped troops.
