Promotion of Large Transport Helicopter Introduction for North Infiltration

[Monthly Aviation Editor-in-Chief Kim Jae-han] Our military's aging CH/HH-47D Chinook helicopters are expected to be upgraded to the latest specifications. The Chinook performance improvement project is a program running from 2018 to 2026 with a total budget of approximately 820 billion KRW, aimed at enhancing the operational capabilities and sustainable operation of the Chinook helicopters operated by the Army and Air Force through performance upgrades.

▲ 17 aging airframes to be upgraded to latest specifications = Initially, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) planned to upgrade a total of 42 helicopters through domestic research and development, including 28 CH/HH-47D units owned by our military and 14 CH-47NE units introduced from the U.S. military in 2014. However, the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses (KIDA) recommended reconsidering the performance upgrade after a feasibility study conducted in 2018 pointed out that the aging U.S. military Chinooks could not guarantee remaining service life, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff accepted this, prompting a review of the original project direction.

Subsequently, on May 24 last year, DAPA held the 121st Defense Acquisition Program Promotion Committee meeting and resolved to revise the basic project strategy by reflecting changes made at the Joint Chiefs of Staff meeting in February, including excluding the 14 CH-47NE units acquired from the U.S. military from the project.

Ultimately, after reviewing requirements and conducting preliminary research, DAPA decided in December last year to proceed with performance upgrades for only 17 units. Notably, the upgrade for these 17 units was finalized not through domestic R&D as initially planned, but by adopting a renew method to introduce CH-47F helicopters. This method involves disassembling and repairing reusable components from existing airframes during the assembly of new CH-47F units. Components such as transmissions and drive systems are known to be reused. In other words, the renew method means that except for some reused parts, the rest is a new CH-47F airframe.

The CH-47F introduced through this renew method is the most recently developed model in the CH-47 series. According to the manufacturer Boeing, the CH-47F is designed to be deployed in various missions performed by armed forces worldwide, including cargo and troop transport, humanitarian operations, special operations, casualty evacuation, and search and rescue.

It features a modern airframe structure, a cockpit equipped with the latest avionics, and a digital autopilot system. Additionally, thanks to its modernized rotors and transport capacity, it can perform missions under adverse conditions such as extreme temperatures, altitudes, and crosswinds that are impossible for other conventional models.

▲ Additional 22 new units to be procured = Meanwhile, DAPA is also reportedly planning to proceed with a third large-scale helicopter acquisition project to procure 22 new Chinook helicopters separately from the performance upgrade project. Initially, the Ministry of National Defense planned to acquire a total of 22 units?12 for transport and 10 for special operations?as a core force within the “Massive Punishment and Retaliation System (KMPR, currently Overwhelming Response)” to counter North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.

However, according to a recent source, the Joint Chiefs of Staff recently decided to integrate the previously separated procurement projects for transport and special operations into a single project. It is not yet known whether the two specifications will be procured separately as originally planned or unified into one specification. Instead, the recent Request for Information (RFI) sent by DAPA to helicopter manufacturers reportedly includes Boeing’s MH-47G, used for special operations, as well as the MV-22 and Sikorsky’s CH-53.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.