Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) announced on July 4 that it succeeded in the initial flight of the first Light Armed Helicopter (LAH).
The initial flight, which took place at KAI's Sacheon headquarters, lasted about 20 minutes with two Army test flight pilots on board.
After taking off about 10 meters from the ground, LAH successfully completed its flight in place, forward and side flights, and left and right turn, proving its flight-control performance and safety, and entering a full-fledged flight test stage.
KAI plans to focus on conducting tests to prove the LAH's flight performance and armed operations by the second half of 2022.
The plan is to demonstrate performance that meets the military's requirements, such as flight speed, altitude of rise and altitude of flight during the initial test evaluation period, and then start mass production.
It also plans to complete the development of the system by November 2022 after a follow-up test assessment of its armed capabilities such as air-to-ground guided missiles, machine guns and rocket bombs.
