South Korea finishes developing its own Marine attack helicopter, with production due to start in 2027

South Korea's state arms procurement agency said on Wednesday, 28 October, that it has completed development of a homegrown Marine Attack Helicopter, an armed aircraft meant to give the Republic of Korea Marine Corps its own air cover during amphibious operations. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration announced the milestone with a ceremony marking the end of system development at Korea Aerospace Industries in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang province, Yonhap and Newsis reported.

Officials from the defence ministry, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Marine Corps attended the event, along with foreign military attaches based in Seoul, according to Newsis and Newspim.

Four weapons tested

The development programme began in October 2022, and the first prototype flew in December 2024. Since then the helicopter has passed weapons firing trials, shipboard operation trials and environmental tests. It was judged fit for combat in July, which allowed a defence specification to be set, and it received airworthiness certification in August.

The agency said the helicopter has fired all four of its weapon types in live tests: a turret-mounted 20mm gun, guided and unguided 70mm rockets, the Korean-made Cheongeom air-to-ground missile and an air-to-air missile. When it announced the end of weapons trials in May, the agency said the air-to-air firing made the aircraft the first Korean-built military helicopter to show it can carry and launch such a missile, giving it a way to protect itself and escort transport helicopters against enemy attack helicopters and drones.

The aircraft links a day and night target acquisition and designation system with a helmet-mounted display for precision strikes, and it has been built to resist salt corrosion and to operate from ships, according to Newsis and Newspim.

Built on the Marineon

The new helicopter is an armed version of the MUH-1 Marineon, the Marine Corps amphibious transport helicopter, which is itself derived from the army's KUH-1 Surion utility helicopter, Yonhap reported. Newspim gave the airframe a length of 19 metres, a main rotor diameter of 15.8 metres, a maximum take-off weight of 8.7 tonnes, a top speed of 265 km per hour and an endurance of about three hours and 40 minutes, powered by two T700-701K turboshaft engines licence-built by Hanwha Aerospace.

According to Newspim, the nose carries an M197 three-barrel 20mm cannon of the type fitted to the US AH-1Z Viper, the targeting sensor is an L3Harris WESCAM MX-15D electro-optical and infrared turret, and the Cheongeom missile has a range of about 8 km. The paper also reported protective design against 12.7mm rounds for key systems, self-sealing fuel tanks, and folding rotors that let the helicopter fit in the hangar of a Dokdo-class amphibious assault ship.

Production from 2027

The development project cost about 450 billion won, or roughly 337 million US dollars, Yonhap reported. It followed a long debate over whether to buy foreign attack helicopters such as the AH-64 Apache or the AH-1Z Viper instead, and the military settled on domestic development in April 2022, according to Newspim.

The agency plans to start production in 2027. The two reports differ on the size of the order: Yonhap said the agency plans to build some 20 of the helicopters, while Newspim put the planned buy at 24, enough to form one attack helicopter squadron. The agency's own announcement, as carried by Newsis, gave no number.

The Marine Corps currently flies 28 Marineons in two amphibious assault helicopter battalions, Newspim reported. Once the attack helicopters escort those transports, the paper said, the Marines would add an airborne strike element to their amphibious assault vehicles, tanks and self-propelled guns. A senior agency programme director said the agency would keep production and the other follow-on steps on schedule so the helicopter can be fielded on time.