Defense & Military
Korean National Police Agency Orders Airbus H225 Helicopter
KNPA expands fleet with Airbus H225 helicopter to enhance heavy-lift and all-weather mission capabilities in South Korea.
Korean National Police Agency Diversifies Fleet with First Airbus H225 Order
The Korean National Police Agency (KNPA) has officially placed an order for one Airbus H225 helicopter, marking a significant shift in its aviation procurement strategy. Announced on November 24, 2025, this acquisition represents the first time the KNPA has selected an Airbus helicopter for its operations. Historically, the agency has relied on a fleet dominated by manufacturers such as Bell, AgustaWestland (Leonardo), and the indigenous Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI). This move signals a diversification of assets aimed at enhancing specific mission capabilities that require heavy-lift performance.
This strategic purchase introduces the H225, a heavy twin-engine helicopter from the Super Puma family, into the KNPA’s aviation portfolio. The decision to integrate this specific platform suggests a focus on expanding the agency’s operational envelope, particularly regarding range, payload, and all-weather performance. As the primary law enforcement body in South Korea, the KNPA requires versatile assets capable of navigating the country’s complex geography, which includes dense urban centers, mountainous terrain, and extensive maritime zones.
The delivery of the H225 will position the KNPA alongside other major South Korean government operators that already utilize the Super Puma family. We observe that this acquisition aligns with broader trends in the region, where agencies are modernizing fleets to address evolving challenges in counter-terrorism, disaster response, and search and rescue (SAR). By selecting a platform already proven within the National 119 Rescue Headquarters and the Korea Coast Guard, the KNPA may benefit from established logistical synergies and operational precedents.
Technical Capabilities and Performance Specifications
The H225 is an 11-ton class helicopter designed to perform in the most demanding environments. At the core of its performance are two Safran Makila 2A1 engines, which provide the necessary power for heavy-lift operations. For the KNPA, the aircraft’s capacity is a critical factor; the H225 can accommodate up to 19 passengers or, in a high-density configuration, up to 28 troops. This payload capability is essential for the rapid deployment of large Special Operations Units (SOU) and SWAT teams, a distinct advantage over the medium and light utility helicopters currently populating the police fleet.
Beyond passenger capacity, the H225 is equipped with advanced avionics designed to reduce pilot workload and enhance safety during complex missions. The aircraft features a state-of-the-art 4-axis autopilot system, which is particularly valuable during precision hovering required for search and rescue operations. Furthermore, the helicopter is fully certified for flight in icing conditions. Given South Korea’s distinct winter seasons and mountainous topography, the ability to operate safely in adverse weather ensures that the KNPA can maintain readiness year-round, regardless of environmental constraints.
The operational range of the H225 is another defining characteristic. With external fuel tanks, the helicopter boasts a range of approximately 1,135 kilometers and an endurance exceeding five hours and 30 minutes. This long-range capability allows the KNPA to conduct extended patrols or reach remote disaster sites without the immediate need for refueling. Additionally, the aircraft can carry an external sling load of 4,750 kg, transforming it into a utility asset capable of transporting heavy rescue equipment or deploying water buckets for aerial firefighting support.
“The H225 has earned a global reputation as a reliable, multi-mission workhorse. We are confident it will become a cornerstone asset for the police agency.”, Vincent Dubrule, Head of Asia-Pacific at Airbus Helicopters.
Operational Context and Strategic Integration
The integration of the H225 into the KNPA fleet addresses a specific “heavy” capability gap. While the agency operates the KAI KUH-1P Chamsuri (a medium utility helicopter) and various Bell and Leonardo models for patrol and transport, these platforms have limitations regarding heavy payload and long-range endurance. The H225 allows for mass evacuations during natural disasters, such as floods or wildfires, which have become increasingly frequent concerns for public safety agencies in the region. Its size and power effectively complement the existing lighter fleet, creating a tiered aviation response capability.
From a maintenance and logistics perspective, the KNPA’s choice of Airbus facilitates interoperability with other domestic agencies. The National 119 Rescue Headquarters and the Korea Coast Guard currently operate all-Airbus fleets or utilize the H225 for maritime patrol and firefighting. This commonality across government agencies can lead to streamlined supply chains, shared training protocols, and more efficient maintenance cycles. It reduces the operational friction often associated with introducing a completely new airframe into a national infrastructure.
Furthermore, industry analysis suggests that this acquisition may be influenced by the need to replace or supplement aging heavy-lift capabilities previously provided by Russian-manufactured aircraft, such as the Mi-17 or Ka-32. With geopolitical sanctions complicating the maintenance and parts procurement for Russian helicopters, South Korean agencies are increasingly turning to Western alternatives to ensure fleet reliability. The H225 presents a viable solution for maintaining heavy-lift capacity while ensuring access to a stable global supply chain and technical support network.
Conclusion
The Korean National Police Agency’s order of the Airbus H225 marks a pivotal moment in the modernization of South Korea’s law enforcement aviation capabilities. By securing a platform known for its heavy-lift capacity, long endurance, and all-weather resilience, the KNPA is significantly bolstering its ability to respond to high-stakes scenarios, from counter-terrorism operations to large-scale disaster relief. This acquisition not only diversifies the agency’s fleet but also aligns it with other national safety organizations, fostering a more integrated and robust emergency response network.
As the H225 enters service, it is expected to become a central asset for the KNPA’s Special Operations Unit and disaster response teams. The move reflects a broader trend in the aerospace sector where versatility and reliability in extreme conditions are paramount. With this new capability, the KNPA is better positioned to protect public safety across South Korea’s varied and challenging environments for years to come.
FAQ
Question: Why is the KNPA ordering an Airbus helicopter for the first time?
Answer: The KNPA is diversifying its fleet to include heavy-lift capabilities that its current medium and light helicopters cannot provide. The Airbus H225 offers specific advantages in range, payload, and all-weather performance suitable for complex missions.
Question: What are the primary missions for the H225 in the KNPA fleet?
Answer: The helicopter will primarily be used for law enforcement, counter-terrorism (transporting SWAT teams), search and rescue (SAR), and disaster response operations.
Question: What is the passenger capacity of the Airbus H225?
Answer: The H225 can carry up to 19 passengers in a standard configuration or up to 28 troops in a high-density seating arrangement.
Sources
Defense Contracts
Air Force Expands Joby Autonomy Contracts After Cross-Country Tour
The US Air Force has raised its commitment to Joby’s autonomy contracts to nearly $37 million, with a $50 million testing ceiling.
The U.S. Air Force has added funding to Joby Aviation’s autonomous flight contracts, bringing its total commitment to nearly $37 million and raising the ceiling on Joby’s operational testing contract to $50 million. The money is aimed at autonomy software development and expanded operational testing in the Pacific.
Joby announced the expansion in a press release distributed on November 4, 2026, the same day it reported third quarter 2026 results. The agreements cover software integration and operational testing across two primary contracts with AFWERX, the Air Force’s innovation arm, and follow a cross-country tour in which a Joby-equipped Cessna Caravan logged 6,665 miles of autonomous flights, with landings in 11 states and integrated operations across 24 states.
What the Air Force is paying for
According to the release, the funding supports autonomy software development and expanded operational testing in the Pacific as the Air Force moves toward sustained autonomous logistics operations. Joby said the new contracts will focus on follow-on Pacific military exercises, and that the funding also supports ongoing design updates and safety reviews to extend the autonomy stack’s capabilities.
The two figures in the announcement measure different things. Nearly $37 million is the Air Force’s total commitment, while $50 million is a ceiling on the operational testing contract. In the forward-looking statements attached to the release, Joby lists Air Force funding and appropriations limits, and the possibility that a contract ceiling is not reached, among the risks to its plans.
JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and CEO of Joby Aviation, called the expansion “a powerful validation of the adaptability of Joby’s autonomy stack.” He said the system was designed to be platform-agnostic and that the funding “will accelerate our path to sustained uncrewed operations.”
Kate Brown, Contested Logistics Tactical Airlift Lead at AFWERX, said the goal is to “sustain cargo operations in contested environments” while reducing risk to aircrews and preserving crewed aircraft for the missions that need them.
From Agile Flag to a coast-to-coast tour
The autonomy system at the center of the contracts came to Joby through its acquisition of the autonomy division of Xwing, which Joby completed in June 2024. In an August 26, 2024 release, Joby said that team flew a fully autonomous Cessna 208B Grand Caravan for more than 3,900 miles between military bases and public airports in California and Nevada during the Air Force’s Agile Flag 24-3 exercise, with a safety pilot monitoring the aircraft. The aircraft completed a fully autonomous taxi, takeoff and landing at each of 9 locations, after the Xwing team had logged more than 2,800 miles of fully autonomous flight in Agile Flag 24-1 earlier that year.
“The return on investment for the U.S. Air Force with this technology is significant,” Col. Max Bremer, Air Mobility Command Special Access Program management officer, said in that release, explaining that using the system for smaller cargo frees larger cargo aircraft for tasks such as moving large parts or engines. According to Joby, the system delivered critical replacement parts 24 hours faster than conventional logistics during Agile Flag, and during REFORPAC exercises in August 2025 an aircraft in Hawaii was operated remotely from Guam, nearly 4,000 miles away. AirPro News covered Joby’s role in the REFORPAC 2025 exercise at the time.
The cross-country tour, part of Joby’s 2026 Electric Skies campaign, took the aircraft from Concord, California, to North Carolina’s Outer Banks with zero control inputs from its onboard safety pilot. Joby said in its September 18, 2026 release that the 3,199-mile eastbound flight was supervised remotely from Joby’s Autonomy Headquarters in California and from Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina, where the aircraft demonstrated representative military flight operations. AirPro News reported on the transcontinental autonomous flight the following day.
Across the full multi-leg tour, Joby said the aircraft performed fully autonomous taxiing, takeoffs, route navigation and landings under remote supervision from up to 2,537 miles away. The September release gave a remote supervision distance of up to 2,323 miles for the eastbound transcontinental flight. A ground-based operator monitors each flight, updates routes and communicates with air traffic control in real time, and the autonomy stack has completed more than 400 fully autonomous flights, according to Joby.
Where defense fits in Joby’s business
Joby is best known for its piloted electric air taxi, and the November 4 release presents the autonomy work as part of a dual-use strategy covering defense logistics, cargo and emergency response. Its autonomous J208 operations are part of the White House-backed eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP) in Utah and North Carolina. North Carolina tour flights supported the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s eLIFT-NC initiative for statewide healthcare logistics, and western flights contributed to the Utah Department of Transportation’s multi-state uFLY coalition, which is evaluating high-altitude, extreme-environment airspace integration for the FAA.
Joby also plans to acquire Resonant Sciences, with closing expected early in 2027. In its third quarter 2026 results release, filed with the SEC on November 4, Joby described Resonant Sciences as an EBITDA-positive defense technology company with more than $100 million in trailing twelve-month revenue and said the deal would significantly expand its defense business. Closing conditions for the planned Resonant Sciences acquisition remain outstanding, according to the filing.
The same results release put third quarter 2026 revenue at $55 million, primarily from Blade, the passenger transportation business Joby operates in the United States and Europe. Joby said it is in the fifth and final stage of FAA type certification and has 17 aircraft in production.
Military Technology
Saab Demonstrates Autonomous BVR AI Agents on Gripen E
Saab unveiled in-house AI agents for autonomous BVR air combat on the Gripen E after two years of flight testing.
Saab AB has successfully demonstrated autonomous Beyond Visual Range (BVR) air combat capabilities using proprietary artificial intelligence agents integrated into a Gripen E fighter aircraft. The Swedish aerospace manufacturer officially unveiled the in-house technology on November 3, 2026, following approximately two years of airborne testing.
In a press release issued today, Saab confirmed the flight trials mark a critical step toward developing collaborative combat aircraft networks, where crewed and uncrewed systems operate as a coordinated force. The milestone underscores the company’s strategy to maintain sovereign control over its technology stack rather than relying entirely on external software providers.
Sovereign AI development and the Sferical facility
Saab centralized its artificial intelligence development under the AI Fighter Pilot Academy (AIFPA), an infrastructure designed to create, train, and evaluate AI agents. The department driving this initiative, Saab Advanced Programs, features a workforce where 40 percent of the staff hold doctorate-level qualifications, according to Aviation International News.
Peter Nilsson, Head of Advanced Programs at Saab Aeronautics, emphasized the operational focus of the project.
“We have not only built our own AI agents, but we have also flown them. This demonstrates our capability to develop AI agents that can be integrated into operational fighter aircraft. The future of air combat will not be defined by individual platforms acting alone, but by networks of crewed and uncrewed systems working together as a coordinated force. Through our ownership of the entire technology stack, we are building the capabilities needed for that future.”
To support this development, Saab recently implemented the Sferical AI facility in Linköping, Sweden. Part-owned by Saab, Ericsson, and AstraZeneca, the sovereign computing asset utilizes Nvidia’s DGX SuperPOD architecture. Aviation International News reported that the facility is powered by 1,152 Nvidia Grace Blackwell GB300 graphics processing units. This computing power allows Saab to run a one-hour flight test simulation one billion times in the same period, compared to just 1,200 times in a traditional central processing unit environment.
Speaking to Breaking Defense, Nilsson outlined the primary challenge facing the AIFPA following the successful flight trials.
“The harder question is how we turn this success into a dependable capability that can learn, improve, and be relevant over time… that is the true purpose of the AI Fighter Pilot Academy.”
Gripen E architecture and testing timeline
Saab, which employs approximately 31,000 people globally, utilized the Gripen E as the primary testbed for its AI agents. The aircraft features a software-defined architecture that segregates mission software from flight-critical functions. This separation enables the rapid integration and testing of new technologies without requiring dedicated experimental platforms or compromising safety of flight.
Prior to unveiling its in-house agents, Saab collaborated with third-party developers to validate the aircraft’s autonomous potential. On May 28, 2025, a Gripen E trials aircraft flew for the first time with the Centaur AI agent developed by Helsing, demonstrating initial BVR air combat capabilities.
Following these third-party trials, Saab transitioned to testing its proprietary agents. The company briefed journalists on the readiness of its in-house AI agents for operational deployment on October 30, 2026, before the official public unveiling on November 3, 2026.
Collaborative combat and future integration
The integration of artificial intelligence into combat aircraft aligns with a broader industry shift toward Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) concepts. Defence contractors globally are developing networks where crewed fighters command uncrewed loyal wingman platforms.
Saab is actively testing the sensor networks required for these collaborative operations. On October 28, 2026, Saab and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) successfully flight-tested an unmanned airborne early warning (AEW) capability, integrating Saab’s LoyalEye radar with an MQ-9B unmanned UAV.
Looking ahead, Saab anticipates that the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) and the Swedish Air Force will absorb these AI agents into real-world operations within months or single digits of years, according to Aviation International News. In the interim, Saab plans to expand the capabilities of its agents by flying them in a broader range of scenarios, establishing the foundation for future uncrewed platforms.
AirPro News analysis
Saab’s insistence on sovereign, in-house artificial intelligence development contrasts with competitors who heavily outsource to commercial technology firms. By owning the entire technology stack, Saab positions itself to offer highly secure, exportable AI packages free from third-party licensing bottlenecks or foreign regulatory hurdles. The massive investment in the Sferical AI facility indicates we are seeing a shift from experimental AI flight tests to industrialized, mass-scale tactical training for autonomous systems. If Saab can deliver on its timeline for Swedish Air Forces integration, the Gripen E could become one of the first Western fighters to field operational, combat-ready AI agents in frontline service.
Defense & Military
Greece Orders Up to Six Embraer KC-390 Millennium Aircraft
Greece signed a government-to-government deal with Portugal for up to six KC-390 Millennium aircraft, with first delivery in 2027.
The Hellenic Ministry of National Defense has signed a government-to-government agreement with Portugal to acquire up to six Embraer KC-390 Millennium multi-mission aircraft, making Greece the seventh European nation to select the Brazilian-built tactical airlifter.
Announced by Embraer in a press release on November 2, 2026, the contract includes three firm orders and options for three additional aircraft, with the first delivery to the Hellenic Air Force scheduled for 2027. The acquisition aims to modernize Greece’s airlift and air-to-air refueling capabilities while enhancing interoperability with allied North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces.
Expanding the European footprint
The procurement is structured as a bilateral agreement between the governments of Greece and Portugal. By selecting the KC-390 Millennium, Greece joins a growing list of NATO and European Union member states transitioning to the jet-powered transport to replace legacy turboprop fleets.
Embraer views the Greek acquisition as a validation of the aircraft’s utility within the European defense architecture, where interoperability and multi-role flexibility are primary requirements for fleet modernization.
“We are honored by Greece’s decision to acquire the KC-390 Millennium. This choice underscores the trust and confidence that leading NATO members place in our aircraft,” Bosco Da Costa Junior, President and CEO of Embraer Defense & Security, said in the company statement. “This very important milestone further solidifies the aircraft’s position as a preferred solution for military airlift among NATO allies.”
Da Costa Junior added that the aircraft’s proven performance, reliability, and cost efficiency make it an ideal choice for nations seeking to enhance their operational capabilities.
The KC-390’s development and market position
The Embraer C-390 and KC-390 Millennium is a medium-size, twin-engine jet-powered military transport aircraft designed to perform aerial refueling, troop transport, and cargo airlift. Development of the platform began in the mid-2000s. The Brazilian Air Force formally joined the project in 2009 by awarding a development contract to Embraer, a manufacturer with over 55 years of history and more than 9,000 aircraft delivered worldwide.
The aircraft completed its maiden flight in 2015, achieved civil certification in 2018, and entered military operational service in September 2019. It was developed specifically as a modern, jet-powered alternative to legacy turboprop tactical transports like the Lockheed C-130 Hercules.
Greece is the seventh European nation to select the aircraft, joining Portugal, Hungary, the Netherlands, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Sweden. Outside of Europe, the aircraft has been acquired by the air forces of Brazil, the Republic of Korea, the Republic of Uzbekistan, the United Arab Emirates, and Colombia.
The program has seen significant momentum in recent months. On July 8, 2026, the Czech Air Force received its first C-390 Millennium transport aircraft, which featured a special three-tone gray camouflage designed by the Military History Institute in Prague. Shortly after, on July 23, 2026, Colombia signed a contract for two KC-390 Millennium transports, with one configured as a tanker to support its incoming Gripen fighter fleet.
AirPro News analysis
Embraer’s success in Europe with the KC-390 Millennium highlights a definitive shift in the tactical airlift market. For decades, the Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules dominated this space. The KC-390’s jet-powered speed, payload capacity, and multi-mission flexibility have proven highly attractive to medium-sized NATO air forces looking to modernize. Securing Greece, a nation with stringent defense requirements and a focus on regional interoperability, validates Embraer’s strategy of leveraging early European adopters like Portugal to facilitate government-to-government sales. We expect this momentum to place increasing pressure on competing legacy platforms in upcoming recapitalization bids across the globe.
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