December 18, 2018 South Korea demonstrated its new military helicopter LAH. The show took place at the KAI plant in Sachhon and so far limited to its presentation. Ground tests will be held in January 2019, the first flight in early May of the same year.
KAI received an order for this helicopter on June 25, 2015 from DAPA - the defense purchasing programs department and from KEIT - the Korean Institute for the Development of Industrial Technology. The helicopter must be of medium or light class with a lifting capacity of 5 tons. The helicopter will be created in two versions: military and commercial. 587 million dollars from DAPA and 316 million dollars from KEIT were allocated for its creation.
The European company Airbus Helicopters is also involved in the creation of the LAH helicopter. She provided a foundation from the Airbus Helicopters H155 for the future South Korean helicopter. The cost of the entire joint program is 1.6 trillion dollars.
It is difficult to say about the completion of the construction of this helicopter, but the plans indicate the dates of 2021-2023.
LAH helicopter is created to replace the outdated Hughes MD 500MD Defender and Bell AH-1S Cobra. Total plans to build a 200 helicopter. Although the KAI company is more optimistic and expects to create 600 cars.
The commercial version of the new helicopter will be equipped with a Safran (Turbomeca) Ariel 2C2 powerplant, while the military will equip more powerful versions of the same Ariel 2L2 engine. Production of these engines will be localized in South Korea.
