Boeing wins $1.6 billion attack helicopter project
By Kang Seung-woo
Boeing's AH-64D Apache
The AH-64E, better known as the Apache Guardian, has been chosen as the country’s multi-billion dollar attack helicopter project, the weapons procurement agency announced Wednesday.
According to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), the Boeing product beat the Bell AH-1Z Viper and the Turkish Aerospace Industry-AgustaWestland T-129 in a three-way competition for 36 attack helicopters worth $1.61 billion (1.8 trillion won).
DAPA said Korea will start bringing in the choppers in 2016 and complete the deployment by 2018.
Korea will be the fourth nation in the world following Taiwan, Saudi Arabia and the United States to employ the variant of the AH-64D, also used by the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division.
The project, titled “Attack Helicopter Experimental,” was initiated in 2008 by the South Korean Army in order to counter any North Korean infiltration along the South’s coastline and to fly counter-penetration missions along the demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas.
The three helicopters pitched for the bid in May last year and DAPA evaluated them in four categories ― cost, performance, operational suitability and contract and miscellaneous terms ― earlier this month and the Guardian outclassed rivals in performance and operational suitability.
The agency said that the United States has promised to transfer 25 technological items including enhanced rotor blade technology. Also some parts of the helicopter will be manufactured in Korea.
“Replacing the South Korean military’s outmoded helicopters, the large-sized attack choppers will be able to boost the military strength,” DAPA spokesman Baek Youn-hyeong said in a briefing.
The twin-engine Apache Guardian can be equipped with up to 16 laser-guided precision Hellfire missiles that can take out heavily-armored ground targets such as tanks and bunkers, while carrying Hydra 70-milimeter rockets and a 30-milimeter chain gun with up to 1,200 ammunition rounds.
Especially, its Longbow fire control radar can simultaneously determine the location, speed and direction of travel of a maximum of 256 targets.
At the early stage of the bidding, the Apache Guardian’s high cost was initially expected to become a stumbling block in the bid, but the proposed total price was within DAPA’s guidelines after negotiations, a military official said.
DAPA declined to comment on the price.