Final Showdown for Army and Navy Training Helicopters

Belsa's B505 helicopter.

Airbus H125 helicopter.

[Monthly Defense Times Editor-in-Chief An Seung-beom] The Army and Navy's basic flight training helicopter project, which announced a bid on December 9, 2020, has entered the final stages of narrowing down candidate models and conducting test evaluations. This project, initiated in 2011, is reaching a conclusion after a full 10 years.

Although the selection process through two previous bid announcements was conducted, there was no helicopter that met the operational requirements demanded by the military authorities.

The basic flight training helicopters currently operated by the Army and Navy are over 40 years old and have passed their replacement deadline, making it imperative to complete this project this time.

Five companies participated in the December bid announcement, but as of March, the number has decreased to three. The competition is proceeding mainly between the European Airbus H125 helicopter and the American Bell B505 helicopter. Another American company, Robinson's R66 helicopter, is also in the mix, but the military authorities have narrowed their interest to the H125 and B505 models.

Airbus's H125 helicopter originated in the 1980s as the ?cureuil helicopter with an airframe weight of 2.4 tons during the era of the French A?rospatiale company and has undergone improvements since. The military version of the ?cureuil helicopter is called the Fennec and was mass-produced as a lightly armed helicopter equipped with a machine gun and rockets.

The H125 helicopter, which improved flight performance by applying composite materials to rotor blades and other parts, is known to have 550 units in operation as of October 2016. The latest redesigned version of the H125 is the H130 model, which replaced the rear fuselage with a Fenestron rotor. It also applied dual hydraulic systems to enhance flight control performance.

Bell's B505 helicopter is an advanced version of the best-selling B206 helicopter, first unveiled at the Paris Air Show in June 2013 and making its maiden flight in November 2014. The B505 features improved flight performance over the existing B206L4, a cockpit windshield that broadens the pilot's field of view, and enlarged cabin doors for crew access. It is recognized as a highly safe helicopter equipped with the latest electronic control devices and a terrain avoidance warning system. The B505's airframe weight is 2 tons during operation.

The commonalities between Airbus's H125 and Bell's B505 helicopters are that both are 2-ton class helicopters and use French Safran engines. After test evaluations from March onward, a model will be selected, and 41 units will be procured with a budget of 157.6 billion KRW.

Airbus is actively proposing offset trades as a partner in the KUH-1 Surion utility helicopter and LAH light attack helicopter projects.

Bell is emphasizing its excellence again based on accumulated experience and data from documents submitted and test evaluations during the second bid announcement and is proposing assembly of the B505 helicopter at KEMS, a subsidiary of KAI, as part of offset trade.

This project is also expected to be decided by price, contract conditions, and offset trades, but there are some views that see Airbus's participation strangely given the reduced project budget compared to the second bid announcement.

Airbus reportedly considered proposing the H120 light helicopter with a maximum airframe weight of 1.7 tons during the first and second bid announcements but gave up participation. The question is whether they can meet the price with the H125, a model one step above the H120. In any case, both the H125 and B505 are clearly high-performance helicopters, and the model will be decided based on the proposed price, bringing additional benefits through offset trades.

We look forward to the selection of the model for the basic flight training helicopter project, which will become a safe and efficient rotary-wing asset for Army and Navy pilots in the future.

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