KAI Small Armed Helicopter Rated 'Provisionally Combat-Ready'... Over 5 Years Since Development Began

Plan to Obtain Combat Suitability Certification by 2022

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Je-hoon] Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) announced on the 11th that the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) has issued a 'provisional combat suitability' certification for the Light Armed Helicopter (LAH). This comes 5 years and 6 months after KAI began the LAH system development project.

The provisional combat suitability certification issued by DAPA is an interim decision-making process to commence initial mass production before the completion of research and development, considering the military deployment schedule for projects that require a long time from development to production. The final determination of combat suitability is made through subsequent testing and evaluation.

The LAH developed by KAI is an armed helicopter equipped with domestically produced air-to-ground missile (AGM) Cheongeom, a 20mm machine gun, and 70mm rockets, capable of performing various missions such as its primary task of enemy tank destruction, air assault unit support, and powerful reconnaissance. Development began in June 2015, design was completed in November 2017, the first flight was successful in July last year, and initial testing was conducted until the end of August.

In particular, KAI conducted flight tests under approximately 3,600 conditions over about 850 hours using three prototype aircraft, testing maximum cruising speed, endurance, vertical climb rate, hover capability, and operation under strong winds. Additionally, engine performance tests, weapon system tests, navigation and communication equipment tests, mission equipment tests, and environmental tests (extreme heat and cold) were conducted to verify overall flight performance and safety.

Since September, KAI has also been conducting follow-up testing focusing on weapon operation capabilities such as air-to-ground missile and turret gun firing tests, as well as verifying the performance of survival equipment like the Missile Warning Radar (MWR) and Radar Warning Receiver (RWR).

KAI plans to additionally verify about 4,000 items by June 2022, and upon completion of this process, it will receive the combat suitability certification in August of the same year, completing the LAH development by the end of the year. A KAI official stated, "We will do our best until the end with thorough follow-up testing and evaluation to contribute to strengthening military capabilities."

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