Eurocopter has been supporting Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), who is the producer of the Surion, as a primary partner in the Korea Utility Helicopter (KUH) programme. To ensure its full support, Eurocopter has set up a fullfledged subsidiary, KHDS, to provide technical assistance for the programme since 2006.

In January 2011, Eurocopter and KAI then set up a joint venture, KAI-EC, for the marketing and sales of the Surion for the export market, projecting a sales volume of about 250-300 units worldwide in the next 10 years.

“South Korea has been our customer for over 30 years, and it has always been one of our key markets in Asia,” stated Eurocopter President & CEO Lutz Bertling. “We have also enjoyed a very fruitful partnership with KAI over the years, as can be seen in the success of the Surion programme whose development phase has been outstandingly on time. Together with KAI, we will help to fuel the growth of the country’s aerospace industry by developing indigenous products that will have great export value.”

Surion is an 8.7 tonne helicopter which can carry 2 pilots and 16 troops (or 2 pilots plus 2 crew and 9 troops). 245 units of the Surion will be manufactured from 2011, to replace the Republic of Korea (RoK) Army’s ageing fleet of utility and transport helicopters.

The six-year KUH development phase ran from 2006 to 2011 and it has successfully completed the initial flight test on March 2010, with the first Surion scheduled to be delivered in the third quarter of 2012.

KNH is the Surion naval derivative proposed for the RoK Navy. It is being developed by KAI in partnership with Eurocopter and Elbit, using their extensive specialist experience, as the ideal aircraft for the RoK Navy and other modern naval or maritime forces.