 RAF Chinooks have been widely deployed in support of British military engagements , serving their first wartime role in Operation Corporate , the Falklands War , in 1982 . Chinooks were used in Operation Granby in the 1991 Gulf War , attached to large peace @-@ keeping commitments in the Balkans , the continued British presence in Afghanistan , and in Operation Telic in the 2003 Iraq War . They provide routine supply and support missions to the British military , notably in Operation Banner in Northern Ireland . The helicopter has also been of use in military humanitarian missions and the extraction of civilians from warzones , such as the evacuation of Sierra Leone in 2000 , and the evacuation from Lebanon in 2006 . 
