The AgustaWestland AW159 Wildcat is close to securing its first foreign order, with South Korea now officially favouring the type over the Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawk to serve as its next-generation maritime helicopter.
South Korea's selection was announced on 15 January 2013 and, now, AgustaWestland expects to have closed the deal by around mid-March. The news is a big boost to the AW159 programme: a potential contract valued at 500+ million Euros that will also help keep several hundred AgustaWestland employees in work.
Information released by DAPA - the Republic of Korea's Defense Acquisition Program Administration - refers to two delivery periods in 2015 and 2016, each involving four Wildcats.
South Korean AW159 Selection
News of the South Korean AW159 selection comes just weeks after the opposite occurred in Denmark, with the MH-60R Seahawk winning over the Wildcat. The Republic of Korea Navy will employ its AW159s in a number of roles. These will include search and rescue, anti-submarine warfare, anti-ship warfare and maritime security.
The Republic of Korea Navy has been active since 1945 and its modern-day naval aviation force consists of some 70 aircraft and helicopters. These include more than 20 Westland Lynx: the forerunner of the AW159 Wildcat.
.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno says he believes South Korea
is ready to assume wartime operational control of allied forces here as
scheduled in 2015.
"Having had the opportunity to work with many nations around the
world and many armies throughout my career, I'm very confident that the
Republic of Korea … is more than capable of taking over responsibility
for their own security," he said during a brief news conference Friday.
"I think it's an important step in our alliance as we continue to move forward," Odierno said.
The planned OPCON transfer has been a hot topic of debate in
Washington and Seoul for years, given the threat posed by North Korea
and varying opinions about whether the South's military is up to the
task of leading the fight should hostilities resume on the peninsula.
Last summer, a Pentagon-commissioned study suggested the U.S.
military take a number of steps to cover for perceived shortcomings in
the South's ability to defend itself, including delaying the 2015 OPCON
transfer until South Korea's military is better prepared to assume the
additional responsibilities.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, in a letter that accompanied that
report -- by the Center for Strategic and International Studies -- when
it was submitted to the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the
transfer of authority will go through only if the South proves it is up
to the challenge.
There are, he wrote, "a series of planning milestones toward which
the department is already working to ensure that wartime OPCON
transition occurs as planned with no loss of readiness of our combined
forces."
Odierno -- who said he tries to visit South Korea every six months to
meet with U.S. Forces Korea and South Korean military leaders, as well
as his troops -- echoed Panetta's sentiments at Friday's news
conference.
"One of the things we talk about all the time is making sure we have
the interoperability to conduct appropriate command and control at all
levels, and that's what we continue to work with the Republic of Korea
on," he said.
"That's why it is important to continue to do these exercises with
them in the lead," Odierno continued. "It will help us to … continue to
help them to establish the appropriate command-and-control structures
for them to be able to execute the operation control in 2015."
