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ADEX 2013: AgustaWestland urges South Korea to revise airborne mine-countermeasures requirements





AgustaWestland is pressing the South Korean government to issue a new requirement of capabilities (RoC) document for its stalled airborne mine-countermeasures (AMCM) programme, a company official told IHS Jane's on 29 October.

Speaking at the Seoul International Aerospace and Defence Exhibition (ADEX) in South Korea, Andrew Symonds, Vice President North-East Asia Sales and Marketing, said that the Defence Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) must come up with a revised solution if the Republic of Korea Navy (RoKN) is not to lose the capability with the scaling back of the US Navy's (USN's) Sikorsky MH-53 AMCM assets in the region.

"The [MH-X AMCM] competition stalled about two years ago, as the specifications were unachievable," Symonds explained. "The US Navy thought it could offer [Korea] five bespoke systems, but two of them couldn't be fitted to the UH-60 [Seahawk helicopter operated by the RoKN]."

According to Symonds, towing the AMCM out of the UH-60's side door (on the MH-53 it is towed out of the rear ramp) resulted in cables snapping, and put the twin-engined helicopter in a precarious position at just 50 kt and a few hundred feet above the sea.

Further compounding the RoKN's predicament is that this setback coincided with a readjustment in the USN of its AMCM capabilities, with a swing away from airborne systems with the phasing out of service of the MH-53 and a greater emphasis on developing underwater methods of mine detection and disposal.

"The Koreans are a bit nervous right now [at the MH-53s being withdrawn and the MH-X effort stalling]," Symonds noted.

With the RoKN looking for a single-platform solution to its AMCM requirement, it might well look to the AW101 Merlin-based system developed by Japan. The Japanese and US governments, along with Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI), have integrated an AMCM system that comprises an operator's console; winch assembly; carriage, deployment and recovery apparatus; and a towed submersible unit. Although AgustaWestland provided platform advice, it did not fund or participate in developing the Japanese AMCM solution.

As such, there will be a fully functional AMCM capability in the region that the RoKN could tap into, although Symonds declined to comment on such a possibility. However, given the historical animosity that still exists between South Korea and Japan it is extremely unlikely that the two would enter into the kind of bi-lateral defence deal that would see KHI supply AMCM-equipped AW101s to the RoKN, and any such system would need to be developed bespoke for the RoKN by AgustaWestland.

Separately, Symonds said that an AW101-based AMCM solution might be suitable for the USN, and that the UK had expressed an interest for the Merlin HM.1 helicopters operated by the Royal Navy.


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