South Africa became one of the Puma’s most intensive users. From 1972 SAAF Pumas flew in South West Africa and Angola, trooping, deploying rapid-reaction forces, relaying radio traffic, evacuating casualties and inserting special forces, and they carried the airborne elements of large cross-border operations such as Savannah, Protea and Modular. Losses could be heavy: in 1982 a Puma brought down in Angola killed 15 servicemen, one of the worst single incidents of the war. Anticipating the 1977 UN arms embargo, South Africa bought most of its Pumas and spares beforehand, and later developed the Atlas Oryx, a remanufactured Puma with Makila engines. the SAAF says Denel assembled 51 of them, which has flown them since 1990, and the Puma’s dynamic system also underpinned the Rooivalk attack helicopter.

The Puma’s best-known African rescue was civilian. On 4 August 1991 the Greek cruise ship Oceanos foundered off the Wild Coast in heavy seas. As many as 13 SAAF Pumas, joined by other helicopters, winched survivors from the listing deck in relays, lifting about 225 people; every one of those aboard survived. Nine years later RAF and SAAF Pumas were back over southern Africa, lifting people from rooftops and trees during the 2000 Mozambique floods.

The RAF ordered 48 Puma HC1s, built by Westland, and added attrition replacements, including one captured from Argentina in 1982 and rebuilt as ZE449. From the 1970s Pumas were based at Odiham with 33 Squadron and the OCU, at Gütersloh with 230 Squadron, in Belize with 1563 Flight and on long detachments to Aldergrove during the Troubles. In 1994 230 Squadron moved to Northern Ireland, and in 2009 both squadrons came together at Benson.

Operations were relentless. In 1991 Pumas of 33 and 230 Squadrons helped move troops quickly enough to stop Iraqi forces sabotaging the Rumaila oil field. From 2003 to 2009 they provided troop mobility across Iraq, where two collided on a special forces mission near Baghdad in April 2007 and another crashed that November, an inquest criticising the lack of night-vision equipment and maintenance shortcomings. Six ex-South African SA 330Ls were bought in 2002, and from 2012 24 aircraft were rebuilt as the HC2, with Makila engines, new gearboxes, digital autopilot and ballistic protection, giving double the payload over three times the range. The HC2 flew in Kabul in support of NATO’s mission, and with 33 and 230 Squadrons until the type’s retirement on 31 March 2025.

• SA 330A: prototypes, originally called Alouette IV.
• SA 330B: first French Army production version, Turmo IIIC4 engines; 132 bought.
• SA 330C: first export version, Turmo IVB.
• SA 330E: Westland-built RAF Puma HC1.
• SA 330F / G: civil versions with Turmo IIIC4 and IVC engines.
• SA 330H: upgraded military version with Turmo IVC and composite blades.
• SA 330J / L: civil and military hot-and-high versions with composite blades and higher weights; Brazilian CH-33.
• SA 330S: Portuguese upgrade with Makila engines.
• SA 330 Orchidée: battlefield surveillance radar demonstrator, rushed to the 1991 Gulf War.
• IAR 330: Romanian licence build from 1975, about 163 built by 2008, including the Elbit-upgraded SOCAT anti-tank and naval versions.
• Atlas Oryx: South African remanufactured Puma with Makila engines.
• Puma HC2: RAF upgrade of 24 aircraft, 2012–2014.

By the 2000s the RAF’s Pumas were showing their age, and in Iraq the fleet’s limitations in heat, at night and under fire were exposed. Rather than buy new, the Ministry of Defence chose a life-extension programme. Plans for 30 upgraded aircraft were cut to 22 and then raised to 24, and the resulting Puma HC2, flown from 2012, gained Makila engines, new gearboxes and tail rotors, digital autopilot and flight management, ballistic protection and a better defensive aids suite. Airbus said the HC2 could carry double the payload over three times the range of the HC1.

The economics of an ageing medium twin are dominated by maintenance hours and spares rather than fuel, which is why many Puma operators, from Portugal to South Africa, have chosen re-engining and rebuilding. No air force publishes a reliable cost per flight hour for the type, so the figure in the table is a hedged estimate rather than an official number.