Israel ordered six SA 321K Super Frelons in 1965 for heavy-lift transport, and the first arrived on 20 April 1966 to form 114 Squadron at Tel Nof; six more were ordered the following year. An early plan to fly Panhard AML-90 armoured cars into airborne operations was abandoned when trials showed the helicopter could not lift the vehicle’s combat weight. Four Super Frelons were available for the Six-Day War of 1967, flying 41 sorties, and the type took part in raids of the War of Attrition, including Operations Helem, Tarnegol 53 and Rhodes. After the Yom Kippur War Israel re-engined the fleet with General Electric T58 turboshafts, flew it again in Lebanon in 1982, and retired it in 1991.

South Africa’s 16 SA 321Ls served with 15 Squadron from 1967. At least two supported Rhodesian operations in Mozambique in 1978 and 1979, and others helped evacuate paratroopers from Angola during Operation Reindeer. Iraq received 16 radar and Exocet-equipped SA 321Hs from 1977 and used them against Iranian shipping in the Tanker War. Two were shot down by Iranian fighters: one by an F-14’s AIM-54 Phoenix during Operation Pearl, and one by a Maverick missile from an F-4 Phantom in July 1986 as it tried to take off from an oil platform.

Between December 1975 and April 1977 China received 12 navalised Super Frelons in anti-submarine and search and rescue versions. They were the first helicopters in the People’s Liberation Army able to operate from the flight decks of surface ships. With French help, China began licence production in 1976 as the Changhe Z-8. The first Chinese-built aircraft flew on 11 December 1985 and the type was certified on 12 November 1994. Naval Z-8s carried a French HS-12 dipping sonar, surface search radar and Whitehead A244S torpedoes, and were used for mine clearance, minelaying and anti-submarine work.

Army transport, search and rescue, medical and air force rescue versions followed, among them the Z-8A, Z-8S, Z-8JH and Z-8K. The 2008 Sichuan earthquake showed the value of a large rescue helicopter and gave production a major boost; the People’s Armed Police ordered 18, mostly for forest firefighting. A civil version, the AC313, with a 13.8-tonne maximum weight and 27 seats, first flew on 18 March 2010. In 2018 PLA Army Aviation announced that it would retire its Z-8s because of poor performance and high maintenance, but naval and other versions continued in service.

The French Navy’s SA 321G was an anti-submarine helicopter, fitted with search radar and anti-submarine equipment. One of its most important jobs was the sanitisation of the approaches to the French ballistic-missile submarine base: before a Redoutable-class submarine sailed on deterrent patrol, Super Frelons searched for hostile submarines that might try to follow it. Some aircraft received nose-mounted radar for targeting Exocet anti-ship missiles, the same combination later exported to Iraq as the SA 321H.

Five SA 321Ga freighters, originally used in support of the Pacific nuclear test centre, were moved to assault transport duties. In 2003 the surviving Aéronavale aircraft were reassigned to transport, commando support, vertical replenishment and search and rescue, and they ended their careers with Flotille 32F at Lanvéoc-Poulmic in Brittany, retiring on 30 April 2010. Two Eurocopter EC225s were bought as stop-gaps until the NH90 arrived, ending the type’s long French career.

• SE.3200 Frelon: the smaller predecessor, with three less powerful Turmo IIIB engines and a four-blade rotor; two built, first flown 10 June 1958.
• SA 321G: French Navy anti-submarine version; SA 321Ga utility and assault transport.
• SA 321GM: Libyan version with search radar; SA 321M: Libyan search and rescue and transport.
• SA 321H: Iraqi version with radar and Exocet missiles.
• SA 321K: Israeli transport, later re-engined with General Electric T58s.
• SA 321L: South African transport with air intake filters.
• SA 321F and SA 321J: civil airliner and utility versions.
• Changhe Z-8: Chinese licence-built naval version, first flown 1985, followed by Z-8A army transport, Z-8S and Z-8K rescue, Z-8JH medical versions and the civil AC313.

No operator has published a cost per flight hour for the Super Frelon, so the figure in the table is an estimate based on its size and its three engines. What is recorded is how operators judged it. Israel retired its Super Frelons in 1991 because of their relatively high maintenance cost and poor performance compared with its Sikorsky CH-53s. In China, PLA Army Aviation announced in 2018 that it would retire the Z-8 for the same reasons, even though some airframes were only a few years old.

Yet the French Navy kept the type flying for 45 years, and China invested heavily in new versions after 2008. For navies needing a large, seaworthy helicopter with a ramp, the Super Frelon’s capability outweighed its running costs for decades, and in China the Z-8 family grew into army, rescue, medical, firefighting and civil versions.