Korea South-Korea Attack & Utility Helicopter Programs

[urban mine]

+

 

[Slayer]

Side by side and chin mounted gun - how does that compute? Doesn't tandem make more sense?

 

[urban mine]

Side by side and chin mounted gun - how does that compute? Doesn't tandem make more sense?

There was a lot of controversy in South Korea on that issue.

On its official YouTube channel, KAI stated that the Side by Side is not particularly inferior to the Tandem. It was said that the side-by-side design is vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire because it increases the frontal area of the helicopter, but KAI responded that the helicopter's major systems are redundant and separate, so even if one system is hit and loses functionality, the other system can still operate normally. They said that being hit does not immediately lead to the loss of the aircraft, and that the best way to increase survivability is to fly the mission away from enemy detection.

So, to put it more simply, KAI's view is that seat design is not that big of an issue on the modern battlefield, and the ROC of the South Korean Marines did not point this out either.

 

[Slayer]

There was a lot of controversy in South Korea on that issue.

On its official YouTube channel, KAI stated that the Side by Side is not particularly inferior to the Tandem. It was said that the side-by-side design is vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire because it increases the frontal area of the helicopter, but KAI responded that the helicopter's major systems are redundant and separate, so even if one system is hit and loses functionality, the other system can still operate normally. They said that being hit does not immediately lead to the loss of the aircraft, and that the best way to increase survivability is to fly the mission away from enemy detection.

So, to put it more simply, KAI's view is that seat design is not that big of an issue on the modern battlefield, and the ROC of the South Korean Marines did not point this out either.

If the gunner sits to the right, the whole left side is going to be blind. In tandem you have much better overall view.

 

[urban mine]

If the gunner sits to the right, the whole left side is going to be blind. In tandem you have much better overall view.

Yes. The test pilot at KAI said that the problems you mentioned can be solved with good communication and division of labor between the two pilots. Honestly, if we really want to make an attack helicopter, I think it's better to do what you said, but the current MAH seems to be developed without design changes to save development time and budget. Korea's MAH program was a competition between the AH-1Z, KAI's MAH model, and the AH-64E. Budget and survivability were the outcome of this project. It seems that the ROK Marines wanted the AH-1Z, but KAI's MAH passed the ROC well enough that they eventually had to accept it.