Defence Helicopter Flying School

Formed in Apr 1997 as a Joint Services helicopter flying training service, under the Private Finance Initiative. Civilian contractors run a fleet of civilian owned, military registered (COMAR) training airframes under contract to MoD. Covers basic single engine to advanced multi-engine & SAR training. Individual service units retain their nominal identity within this structure but are tasked by DHFS.

660 Squadron retains its Army Air Corps identity but is tasked by DHFS as a Basic Rotary Wing squadron.

705 Naval Air Squadron retains its Royal Navy identity but is tasked by DHFS as a Basic Rotary Wing squadron.

60 Squadron retains its Royal Air Force identity but is tasked by DHFS as the Advanced and Multi-Engined Rotary Wing squadron.

SARTU retains its Royal Air Force identity but is tasked by DHFS as the Search and Rescue Training unit.

Since 2018, rotary wing training provided by Ascent, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Babcock, under a £1.1B contract in 2017 with Airbus H135 (Juno) and H145 (Jupiter) helicopters