AgustaWestland, Bell and Eurocopter to vie for partnership role in KMH programme
South Korea plans to eliminate Boeing and Sikorsky from a five-way contest to select a foreign partner for the indigenous Korean Multi-role Helicopter (KMH) programme. Industry sources say solutions offered by the US companies will be rejected when a shortlist is formally issued in mid-July. AgustaWestland, Bell Helicopter and Eurocopter are believed to have been chosen.
A special evaluation committee completed two weeks of sequestered meetings at the beginning of this month, and its shortlist requires defence ministry approval before it can be briefed to the manufacturers.
Industry sources say the proposed shortlist knocks out Boeing and Sikorsky on the grounds that their proposals do not meet the requirement. Neither company offered a firm fixed price, as required, or a new enough design. Sources say the companies determined it was not commercially viable to offer an aircraft that met all the requirements and the potential benefits of the programme did not outweigh the risks.
The companies would have had to invest heavily to meet the requirement, because their current product line is much larger than the roughly 6,800kg (15,000lb) KMH. Boeing proposed an AH-64D Apache derivative and used its proposal to try to educate Seoul on the complexities involved with developing a new attack helicopter. Sikorsky offered UH-60 Black Hawk derivatives.
The AgustaWestland-backed Bell/Agusta AB139, Bell UH-1Y/AH-1Z and the Eurocopter Tiger are closer in size to the South Korean requirement and can be more easily modified in time to meet KMH's 2010 entry into service. Negotiations with each shortlisted company should begin by next month and conclude by year-end.
Boeing still aims to sell the Apache separately and believes South Korea's large attack helicopter requirement will become more pressing as the US Army withdraws two of its three Apache brigades now based in the country. Sikorsky plans to focus on competing for some of the more than 20 KMH components to be acquired separately, with bids from foreign partners due at the end of July.
* South Korea has requested pricing information on a second batch of Boeing F-15K multirole fighters. Seoul already has 40 aircraft on order, with deliveries to start in late 2005, but has a long-standing requirement for 120 new fighters.
Sources say while South Korea has begun evaluating a follow-on order for 40 additional aircraft, budget constraints are likely to prevent any purchase in the short to medium term.
BRENDAN SOBIE / SINGAPORE
Source: Flight International
