When Israel invaded Lebanon in June 1982, Syria’s small force of HOT-armed Gazelles was among the few weapons that could strike its armoured columns in the mountains. The first attacks came on 8 June, and according to the historian Roger Spiller they spread alarm among Israeli tank crews, who found themselves engaged by missiles fired from beyond the range of their own weapons. The Gazelles used Western-style pop-up tactics, rising briefly from cover to fire and dropping back out of sight.

Their effect is still argued over. Syria later claimed 30 tanks and 50 other vehicles destroyed for the loss of five helicopters; Israel acknowledged seven tanks lost to the Gazelles and claimed 12 of them shot down. The analyst Kenneth Pollack judged them psychologically effective but able to manage no more than a few armour kills. As Israeli air superiority grew, the raids became more dangerous, yet strikes continued until the ceasefire. What is not contested is the lesson Syria drew: after the war it expanded its Gazelle fleet from 16 to 50 and added 50 heavier Mi-24s. Across the region the war confirmed the attack helicopter as a weapon armies could not ignore.

The first British Army unit to fly the Gazelle was No. 660 Squadron AAC in Germany, operational from 6 July 1974. The AH.1 replaced the Sioux for reconnaissance, artillery spotting, liaison and casualty evacuation, and in the Cold War Army Gazelles flew more than 660,000 hours. The Royal Navy used the HT.2 at Culdrose from December 1974 to train its helicopter pilots, the RAF flew the HT.3 trainer and HCC.4 communications aircraft, and the Royal Marines flew AH.1s with 3 Commando Brigade Air Squadron. It became the only aircraft to serve with every branch of the British armed forces.

The Gazelle flew patrols over Northern Ireland, where one was brought down near Jonesborough in February 1978 during a firefight with the Provisional IRA. In the Falklands, two Royal Marines Gazelles were shot down on the first day of the San Carlos landings, and on 6 June 1982 an Army Gazelle was shot down by HMS Cardiff after being mistaken for an Argentine aircraft. Later it flew in the Gulf, Bosnia, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Iraq and Afghanistan, where in 2007 it was reported as the best-performing British helicopter, with about 80 percent availability. Its last tasks were surveillance in Northern Ireland and support at the Suffield training area in Canada, until three Gazelles flew a farewell tour before retirement on 31 October 2023.

• SA 340: prototypes, first flight 7 April 1967.
• SA 341B / Gazelle AH.1: British Army and Royal Marines utility and observation version.
• SA 341C / Gazelle HT.2: Royal Navy pilot trainer.
• SA 341D / Gazelle HT.3: RAF pilot trainer.
• SA 341E / Gazelle HCC.4: RAF communications and VIP version.
• SA 341F: French Army light support version, some with a 20 mm cannon; basis of the Mistral-armed Gazelle Celtic.
• SA 341G / H: civil and export military versions.
• SA 342L: export military version with the uprated Astazou XIV.
• SA 342M / M1: French Army anti-tank version with four HOT missiles; later Viviane thermal-imaging and Mistral versions.
• SOKO HN-42M / HN-45M Gama: Yugoslav licence-built armed versions.

The Gazelle’s longevity is partly a matter of money. It was designed from the start to be cheap to maintain: sealed, life-rated bearings, components with service lives of 700 to 1,200 hours, and an engine and rotor system simple enough for small air arms to support. That is why the British Army kept it until 2023, more than once extending its out-of-service date, and why France, Egypt, Serbia and others still fly it alongside much newer helicopters.

Upgrade packages have helped. Companies such as Aerotec have offered ballistic protection, night-vision goggles, new weapons and modern displays, QinetiQ developed direct voice input for the cockpit, and there were proposals to turn retired Gazelles into unmanned aircraft. No air force publishes an official hourly cost for the type, so the figure in the table is a hedged estimate. In civil hands, ex-military Gazelles remain one of the more affordable ways to own a turbine helicopter with a military pedigree.