South Korea’s Homegrown Marine Attack Helicopter Nears Completion

South Korea’s domestically developed marine attack helicopter (MAH) has completed all weapons tests and entered the final stage of development.

Launched in October 2022, the MAH program is expected to wrap up by August this year and slated to begin mass production in 2027 to strengthen the Republic of Korea Marine Corps’ operations.

Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) secured the contract in 2022 to build the chopper, intended to escort the Marine Corps’ MUH-1 Marineon marine utility helicopters during amphibious assault operations while also providing close air support and protection against aerial threats.

The prototype conducted its first flight in December 2024.

Following that, the attack helicopter completed a series of live-fire tests to assess its key weapon systems, including air-to-ground and air-to-air guided missiles and turret-type machine guns, as well as guided and unguided rockets.

Homegrown Helicopter

KAI is building the medium-class MAH based on the MUH-1 Marineon, an amphibious variant of the KUH-1 Surion utility helicopter, also developed by KAI.

The MAH integrates advanced equipment, including a target acquisition and designation system, an integrated helmet-mounted display, maritime-optimized avionics, and an automatic flight control system.

It measures 19 meters (62 feet) long and 5 meters (16 feet) tall, powered by a twin-turboshaft engine setup paired with a Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC) system.