After a North Korean submarine sank the South Korean naval frigate ROKS Cheonan in March 2010, the Republic of Korea (ROK) navy decided it needed to improve its anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities. The very next month, two of the navy's existing Super Lynx helicopters, delivered by the British firm Westland in the 1990s, crashed at sea. This combination of events led the ROK's Defense Acquisition Program Administration to accelerate a program to acquire additional helicopters, and a tender was issued later that year.

The resulting ASW helicopter acquisition program proved that corruption can thrive even when security stakes are of the highest order. 46 sailors died in the Cheonan incident and North Korea operates around 70 attack submarines in total. At the same time, Pyongyang is working toward a submarine-launched ballistic missile capability. Yet when ROK naval officials were tasked to evaluate the options for South Korea's new ASW helicopter, key senior officers conspired to fabricate a key assessment report after receiving bribes from Westland's new parent company, Finmeccanica (recently renamed Leonardo). The resulting scandal stemming from the AW-159 acquisition program brought down the retired head of the military as well as a former minister.