Uncrewed defense: Hanwha’s vision for future battlefields

Korean defense conglomerate to complete full lineup of uncrewed ground vehicles by 2028

Hanwha Aerospace's uncrewed ground vehicles Arion-SMET (left) and GRUNT (Hanwha Aerospace)

Hanwha Group, South Korea’s seventh largest conglomerate, has unveiled its roadmap to advance defense solutions based on artificial intelligence and autonomous technologies to lead the future battlefields.

According to Hanwha on Sunday, the conglomerate’s three defense affiliates ― Hanwha Aerospace, Hanwha Ocean and Hanwha Systems ― presented the current status and future roadmap of their unmanned weapons systems during a meeting with the Defense Acquisition Program Administration at Hanwha Aerospace’s R&D Campus in Daejeon on Friday.

Hanwha Aerospace showcased its uncrewed ground vehicles, including the Arion-SMET, which underwent the US Defense Department’s foreign comparative testing, the Ground Uncrewed Transport, or GRUNT, a newly developed next-generation model, and an explosive ordnance disposal robot set to be integrated into the military for the first time this year.

Based on its 20-year-long experience of developing military robots, Hanwha Aerospace laid out plans to secure a full lineup of unmanned ground vehicles covering all sizes by 2028 and lead the global UGV market. To accelerate the drive, Hanwha Aerospace signed a partnership with Milrem Robotics, a United Arab Emirates–Estonian robotic vehicle manufacturer, last month to work together on developing robotic combat vehicles and expanding the relevant markets worldwide.

The three Hanwha firms also presented a blueprint for the crewed-uncrewed teaming, or MUM-T, solutions that operate the unmanned systems of the land, sea and air defense assets. Hanwha Systems offer an unmanned surface vessel and multilayered communications system based on low-orbit satellites while Hanwha Ocean boasts an uncrewed command and control ship.

According to Hanwha, the combined network of such reconnaissance and surveillance systems will allow various operations as they share the situation of each battlefield with on-site weapons systems.

“Developing manned-unmanned complex systems successfully and operating them effectively are essential to strengthen the competitiveness of (our) defense industry in future battlefields,” said Seok Jong-gun, minister of DAPA.

“We will amend related laws and systems to support the requests such as improving the accessibility to the national defense data, which was raised as an issue through this meeting.”

Hanwha Aerospace CEO Son Jae-il said the meeting with the DAPA was a meaningful occasion that discussed the direction of uncrewed and AI technologies as well as Korea’s sovereign defense capabilities for the future, noting that the country’s defense industry will be stronger when the government and defense firms think together and cooperate.