The Romanian Air Force signed a contract with the Israeli Elbit Systems company to upgrade 24 helicopters with the SOCAT system (Sistem Optronic de Cercetare si Anti-Tanc).
Some of these IAR330L are modified to NATO Puma standard which is like the SOCAT upgrade without the weaponsystems. After the upgrade they also received the SOCAT colourscheme.
24 IAR-330 Puma SOCAT helicopters have been modernized by the Romanian Aviation Industry in cooperation with Elbit Systems (Israel) for attack missions.
Co-operative Key 2000 saw the participation of two Mi-17s from Macedonia. One of them seen here on a SAR mission with four Romanian Pumas crashed on January 12th, 2008.