The Defense Acquisition Program Administration announced on May 16, 2022 that it signed a purchase contract with Bell Textron Asia for the basic flight training helicopter project to introduce 40 Bell 505 helicopters for KRW 170 billion.
The basic flight training helicopter project is a project to introduce about 40 helicopters and 8 simulators for pilot training in the Army and Navy by 2025. It is scheduled to be sequentially deployed to the Army and Navy starting in 2023 and be used in pilot introductory courses. To date, more than a dozen units have been delivered, and electrification is expected to be completed in 2025.
Flight training simulators are developed, manufactured, and delivered by domestic companies.
The helicopter being introduced this time was developed for military training by equipping the civilian Bell 505 helicopter with the latest digital instrument panel and tactical navigation equipment. As of March 2024, the Navy's 609th Education and Training Squadron has acquired the first three Bell-505s and is in the process of deploying them.
The Bell 505 is a completely new "clean sheet" design, but uses some dynamic components such as the rotor system of the Bell 206L-4, the airframe is made of metal and composites, has a flat floor of 2.04 m² and a luggage space of 0.51 m³. had The engine is a Safran Arrius 2R with a maximum continuous power of 459shp, dual-channel FADEC and 3,000 hour maintenance intervals.