In de beginning of 2014, the mark of the 3000 saved lives was reached with the rescue of a crew member of the “Flex Endem” ship, that was navigating at 76 nautical miles from Montijo.

With the arrival of the first Merlins in 2005, that year was necessary to fulfil all the test, trainings and qualification procedures to be ready to fly operational missions.

The Portuguese SRR coincides with Lisbon and Santa Maria Flight Information Regions (FIR).

3 in Porto Santo (Madeira archipelago) and two AW101 Merlin helicopters in Lajes Air Force Base no.

[14] The capacity provided by the EH-101 is of enormous importance and is currently possible to perform rescue missions at a distance of 400 nautical miles from the take-off point.

Performed with the SA 330, the assembling of a very large antenna (283 meters) in the town of Muge, the placement of the power lines to the village of S. Romão in Serra da Estrela, the installation of Bugio's lighthouse dome in 1981, as well as 163 missions during the Tejo river floods in 1979 and 1983[17] totaling 255 flight hours, 1386 people evacuated and 11.244 kg of cargo air lifted.

Support was also provided during the rescue operations following the Portuguese biggest train accident – in Alcafache – on September 11, 1985, were several injured people were transported to Viseu, Oporto and Lisbon hospitals.

On Christmas Eve of 2000, one SA 330 rescued 22 sailors from the ship "Coral Bunker" that ran ashore in Viana do Castelo.

As an example, the support provided during the rescue of the sailors of the sunk "MV KEA", 180NM off the coast of Galiza, Spain, in March 2010.

[20] The crew that performed this mission was later awarded, by SASEMAR (the Spanish agency responsible for the Search and Rescue services in Spain) the "Ancla de Plata" award, an annual prize that intends to congratulate crews and people that contribute to SAR or Anti-pollution missions.

[21] In December 2011, the 6 missing fishermen from the fishing vessel "Virgem do Sameiro" were located and rescue by one of the 751 helicopters, north of Figueira da Foz.

[27][28] On 29 February, the 751 Squadron rescued 10 crew member of the fishing ship "Ilhas do Mar" in the Madeira archipelago.

The EH-101 Merlin is a medium transport helicopter, trimotor with tricycle landing train, semi-retractable, with dual wheels on each unit and five main rotor blades.

It has an emergency floats system, 2 built boats of 14 people capacity, 1 primary and a secondary winch, NITESUN and FLIR.

The CSAR embodiment is equipped with "Defensive AIDS Suite" (DAS) consisting of an integrated electronic self-protection, comprising the following subsystems: one "Radar Warning Receiver" (RWR), a "Missile Warning System" (MWS) and a "Counter Measures Dispensing System" (WSSD).