South Korea could decide on an attack helicopter requirement after assessing progress with an indigenous military utility helicopter programme.
Korea Aerospace Industries and Eurocopter are jointly working on the Korea Helicopter Programme (KHP), with a first flight scheduled for 2010 and production to begin in 2012.
Seoul also has a requirement for about 270 attack helicopters. Eurocopter is interested in offering its Tiger, but could help develop an attack variant under KHP.
"We need attack helicopters and an option is to get it via the KHP," says Lee Sun Hi, commissioner of Korea's defence procurements agency. "But we must assess the utility helicopter's performance when it starts flying, and see if it can be adapted for our attack helicopter requirement. Otherwise, we can look elsewhere."
KHP is developing an 8t military utility helicopter. Korea could eventually order 500 for all of its services to replace an ageing fleet of Bell UH-1Hs and McDonnell Douglas MD500s. A $1.3 billion development contract was signed in June 2006, and the programme is expected to cost about $5.4 billion by 2011.
Another indigenous Korean programme - KF-X, to develop a fifth-generation fighter - has suffered a blow after a government think-tank said it may not be economically viable. Seoul has invited feedback from manufacturers including Boeing, Dassault and Lockheed Martin.
Observers say it would too expensive to design an aircraft from scratch, and it may be better to buy the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, in which South Korea has expressed an interest. Lee says a final decision has not been made.
"The report says that the cost-benefit effect is not viable, but that does not mean we don't proceed. We have to discuss it with the defence ministry and the air force to find viable methods to proceed on this matter," he adds.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
