Will the Training Helicopter Project Be Decided This Time?

[Monthly Defense Times Editor-in-Chief An Seung-beom] The helicopter acquisition project, which restarted last February with the third announcement, is expected to select the model within a year.

The follow-up project to introduce basic flight training helicopters for the Army and Navy, replacing the military training helicopters used for over 40 years (TH-X), has been narrowed down to two models after a year of review and is expected to be decided in March 2022. The project plans to procure 41 units with a budget of 157.6 billion KRW.

The candidate models are the H125 from France's Airbus and the 505 from the United States' Bell. The training helicopter project has been delayed as two bids in 2017 and 2019 failed. The training helicopter project was first proposed in 2011, and although several candidate models were listed, it drifted as none met the military's performance and price requirements.

Meanwhile, the Army has been struggling to maintain the aging 500MD light attack helicopters while training pilots, and the Navy has been conducting training flights with the aging UH-1H utility helicopters. However, the long-postponed follow-up replacement project is now reaching a conclusion.

Following the death of a pilot in the crash of the Air Force's aging KF-5 fighter on January 11, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) is finalizing negotiations and plans to select the model. DAPA found a breakthrough by lowering the required performance, aiming to complete price negotiations and the final bidding by February and select the model in March.

France's Airbus H125 helicopter first appeared in 1974, and over 550 units have been used in the civilian market to date. The U.S. Bell 505 helicopter, introduced in 2014, is a small single-engine turbine helicopter with five seats, equipped with the latest electronic devices suitable for flight training.

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