The school, established in 1997, was a tri-service organisation and trained helicopter aircrews for all three British armed forces.

[1][2] The Army Air Corps (AAC) trained crews at ACC Middle Wallop in Hampshire.

[3] In October 1996, a private finance initiative contract was placed with FBS, a consortium of Flight Refuelling Aviation (FRA – now Cobham), Bristows Helicopters Ltd and Serco, each holding a 33.3% share of the company.

Compared to the existing training arrangements, the government expected the DHFS to provide £80m of savings over the 15-year contract period.

[8] The school was officially opened on 9 April 1997 by the then Vice-Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir John Willis.

FB Heliservices, a subsidiary company set-up by FBS, commenced trading on 1 April 2001 and took responsibility for the provision of aircraft and services to the DHFS.

[10] In May 2007, the DHFS celebrated its 10th anniversary when the Prince of Wales, who is Colonel in Chief of the Army Air Corps, attended a ceremony at RAF Shawbury.

In the first ten years, 2,885 students passed through the school and its Squirrel fleet accumulated over 250,000 flying hours.

[12] After purchasing Bristow's share of the company in July 2013, Cobham became full owner of FB Heliservices.

[17] Other changes include the DHFS becoming a sub-unit of the Shawbury station headquarters, rather than an independent lodger unit, which it has been since in creation in 1997.

The UKMFTS contract amendment worth £183 million is to create further rear crew training capacity.

The additional aircraft and simulator were expected to be based at RAF Shawbury, where infrastructure will also be enhanced to accommodate extra students.

[25] The DHFS used grass airfields at Ternhill and Chetwynd for helicopter training, both located in Shropshire.