Army deploys Surion copters

Surion Korean Utility Helicopters (KUH-1), at left, fly in formation at the ROK Army Aviation School in Nonsan, South Chungcheong Province, Wednesday. President Park Geun-hye, right, pumps her fist inside the cockpit of the country’s first indigenous helicopter. / Yonhap

1st home-made utility choppers to replace UH-1Hs

By Kang Seung-woo

The Surion, Korea’s first indigenous helicopter, has been deployed after a six-year development phase, the Army said Wednesday.

Ten Korean Utility Helicopters (KUH-1), developed by Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), jointly with European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS) Eurocopter, have been deployed to the Army Aviation School in Nonsan, South Chungcheong Province.

President Park Geun-hye, Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin and other guests including lawmakers from the National Defense Committee attended a ceremony to celebrate the deployment.

The completion of the aircraft has made Korea the world’s 11th nation to locally develop a helicopter.

The Korean government launched a six-year, 1.3 trillion won ($1.17 billion) project in June 2006 to produce a twin-engine light utility helicopter to replace the aging fleet of U.S.-made UH-1Hs and 500MD light helicopters that have been in service for decades.

The first prototype of the Surion, which means “agile and flawless” in Korean, was delivered in August 2009 and successfully completed its maiden flight in March 2010 before entering full-scale production in 2012.

According to the Defense Acquisition and Procurement Agency (DAPA), the Surion underwent more than 2,000 test flights over 2,700 hours, without accident.

The aircraft also passed 50 cold-weather tests in Alaska between December and February to test its working in extreme conditions, such as being exposed to 40 degrees below zero Celsius over 12 hours.

The KUH-1, 15 meters long, 4.5 meters high and 2 meters wide, with a maximum takeoff weight of 8.7 tons, is able to carry two pilots, two crew members and nine armed troops or two pilots and some 2,300 kilograms of cargo.

The light utility helicopter has a top speed of 141 knots, or 261 kilometers per hour, and its twin engines enable the chopper to fly for over two hours and thirty minutes fully laden. Its range is some 440 kilometers.

It is also suitable for mountainous terrain, capable of vertical take-off at a speed of 150 meters per minute, hovering at the height of Baekdu Mountain at 2,744 meters.

Thanks to these features, the military expects the Surion to be used in a variety of roles including assault operations, search and rescue, cargo transportation and medical evacuation. It will be offered as a civilian version, as well.

“The Army has mainly used UH-1Hs since the helicopters were introduced in 1968. The deployment of the cutting-edge Surion will enable the ROK Army to innovatively increase its aviation operational capability and reduce difficulties of supplying parts from overseas,” Colonel Song Jae-geun said.

Korea plans to supply a total of 200 utility helicopters to the Army by 2022, while 40 Surion amphibious helicopter variants for the marines will be delivered by 2023 in efforts to enhance the marine’s ability to transport troops and equipment in the littoral environment.

Last month, Korea decided to import 36 Apache Guardians between 2016 and 2018 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.

President Park said South Korea and the United States will not provide any aid to North Korea as long as it continues to ratchet up tensions with iit provocations.

“When I visited the U.S., President Obama and I made it clear that we will sternly react to any provocations from the North but leave the door open for dialogue,” Park said during her speech at the ceremony.

“We are going to push for a trust process for coexistence if the North chooses a path to change. I once again strongly call for North Korea’s change.”