1 Trillion Won Over 12 Generations … The US-Made Gun Trump Pressed Will Finally Buy

In April last year, a Seahawk helicopter (MH-60R) was launched from the American destroyer Gribly (DDG 107) operating in the waters of the North Atlantic. [연합뉴스]

On the afternoon of the 15th, the Korean Defense Acquisition Program Administration held the 132nd Defense Project Promotion Committee (Bangchuwi) and decided on the model of the “Second Marine Operational Helicopter Project”. The purchase of 12 ‘Seahawk’ (MH-60R) manufactured by Lockheed Martin in the United States has been confirmed.

The project to introduce a maritime operational helicopter began with the attack on the Cheonan Ship, which was sunk in a torpedo attack by a North Korean submarine in 2010. To prepare for the North Korean submarine invasion, it is to deploy a ‘submarine killer’ to search the sea.

In the selection of this model, the candidate model at the time of the first project in 2013 competed fiercely. At that time, the ‘Wildcat’ (AW-159), a model of the helicopter of Leonardo, a joint defense company in Italy and the United Kingdom, was selected and 8 units delivered to the Korean Navy, but this time it drank a crush .

The Cheonan, which was sunk in the waters near Baengnyeongdo Island after a torpedo attack by a North Korean submarine in 2010, is being pulled out of the water. [중앙포토]

It is an analysis that the influence of US President Donald Trump was attributable to the decision to introduce 12 Seahawks from US Lockheed Martin. At the Korea-US summit in April last year, he announced that “Korea has decided to buy large quantities of US-made military equipment.”

In March, a month before the summit meeting, Bangchu-wi decided to promote the second maritime helicopter project, and the European NH industry’s Seahawk, Wildcat and ‘Shirion’ (NH-90) started in earnest.

When President Trump met again with President Moon in September of that year, he resubmitted a ‘gun purchase invoice’. At this time, President Moon did not mention the specific quantity and type of weapon, but emphasized the alliance between the ROK and the US and announced plans to purchase US-made weapons over the next three years. , and the possibility of introducing Seahawks later on was predicted.

Park Won-gon, a professor at Handong University, said: “When President Moon met with Trump, it is very likely that he conveyed his intention to buy US-made weapons” and said: “The next Biden administration will also wants to buy products made in the United States. ” I think it will have a positive effect on the company. ”

Ahead of the Korea-US summit held at the White House in April last year, President Moon Jae-in and US President Donald Trump are in conversation. [청와대사진기자단]

The Sea Hawk has a length of 19.7 m, a height of 5.1 m and a fuselage width of 3.3 m, with a maximum flight speed of 267 km per hour and a range of 930 km. Once taken off, it will fly for about 4 hours. It can search for enemy submarines with sonic detection devices (dippingso or sonobui) and attack with torpedoes and air-to-air missiles.

The Sea Hawk is analyzed to have a large fuselage and outperforms its competitors in flight time, cruising distance and armament. However, the high cost of gas was seen as an obstacle. The reason for being kicked out of the core business competition was price competitiveness.

However, with the active support of the US government, orders for seahawks continued in recent years, causing an increase in the scale of production and falling prices. In May, India confirmed the purchase of 24 units and Taiwan will also purchase 10 units. Bangchuwi said, “We plan to sign a contract within this year” and “the total cost of the project is approximately 960 billion won.”

The maritime operational helicopter ‘Wildcat’ (AW-159) is engaged in maritime operations with a naval submarine. [해군 제공]

The Sea Hawk selected on this day will arrive in Korea only in 2025. In 2013, Bangsaeng Agency decided to introduce 8 Wildcats with an investment of 588 billion won in the first project and then completed the electrification in 2017. However, the second Project, which started in 2013, has been delayed for the past seven years for the past seven years in the course of the project and model selection.

Initially, Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) did a strong domestic development review to remodel Surion helicopters, but only concerned about domestic development and overseas introduction plans. After accepting the report that domestic development is likely to fail and the development period to be prolonged, we set our direction towards overseas introduction after five years.

Bangsaeng Agency issued a tender notice in June 2018, but in both October and November, only Wildcat bids were inspected. According to the Defense Acquisition Act, which allowed private contracts to be bought twice, the second project seemed to turn out to be a wild cat that won the first project.

However, on the second inspection day, the US government belatedly announced that Seahawk would also challenge the project and an origin review was conducted. The selection process for the competition model, which began in March of last year, concluded in 21 months.

F-15K squadrons, which completed the airspace protection flight, are entering the site of the event commemorating the 71st anniversary of Armed Forces Day held at Daegu Air Force Base in October last year. [청와대사진기자단]

Besides Seahawk, there are other companies that have returned to American action. On this day, the F-15K, the flagship fighter of the Korean army, also improved the performance of the satellite positioning system (GPS), the FIA ​​identification team (IFF) and the tactical data link (Link-16 ) with the ability to avoid radio disturbances (anti-jamming). I decided to leave it to Boeing. The contract is scheduled for this year and will invest 300 billion won by 2026.

Meanwhile, after discussing the direction of medium and long-term development of the power of midsize mobile helicopters, the meeting said: “The basic Black Hawk (UH-60) helicopter will become a next generation mobile helicopter. in the future when its life cycle arrives, and the UH-60 special operations helicopter will be upgraded and repaired separately. After the completion of mass production, the whole helicopter deliberated and decided to promote performance improvement. ”

The army’s large mobile helicopter “Chinuk” (CH-47) performance improvement project was to be discontinued. The Radiation Administration said: “Considering the schedule, performance and cost comprehensively, at this axis committee meeting, we deliberated and decided to suspend the Chinook performance improvement project.” “Explained.

Reporter Park Yonghan [email protected]