Korean KHP and E-X news

According to the local press, KAI has recommended to the Ministry of National Defense that Eurocopter be selected as the primary airframe partner for the KHP. The MND’s official announcement is scheduled for the end of this month. Just out of curiosity, does anyone have any pics of how the Eurocopter’s KHP proposal looks like?

As for the E-X, both the Boeing and IAI proposals have passed ROKAF’s technical evaluation(unlike the last time). According to the MND, if both contenders pass the technical evaluation the final selection will go to the least expensive proposal. Since the IAI solution is cheaper, the local press is speculating that the MND will award the E-X contract to IAI. However there are some people withing the MND and ROKAF that are saying that the Boeing solution should be selected. We’ll see what happens next month.

Because of what looks like two big setbacks for US defense contractors, the local press is also declaring that the era of US dominance in ROK defense contracts is over. Of course this remains to be seen.