AgustaWestland EH101
in Força Aérea Portuguesa

Initial order of 12 Merlins for Search and Rescue (6 Mk514), Combat SAR (4 Mk516) and Fishery Protection (2 Mk515) roles, saw the first delivered in Feb 2005, followed by three more to commence conversion to type training.

In 2010 the Portuguese Air Force (PoAF) achieved the milestone of 10,000 flying hours with its AW101 fleet performing fishery protection and search and rescue duties having saved more than 630 lives since introduced in late 2004