On the 12th, at the Hanwha Systems business site in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province. Inside the 500-pyeong "vibration-free clean room" in the manufacturing building, production of high-precision electro-optical products for aircraft, including the supersonic fighter KF-21, was in full swing. This place reduces vibrations to 1/100 that of ordinary buildings and manages dust to a level similar to general semiconductor processes. Because electro-optical products combine multiple cameras and lasers to focus on a single point, their parts must be aligned in a location where vibration and dust are minimized.
Within the Hanwha Systems Gumi business site, such clean rooms total 1,500 pyeong. It is the largest in the domestic defense industry. Kim Yong-jin, head of the Hanwha Systems Gumi business site (executive director), said, "We built a large-scale clean room to produce products that can deliver optimal performance," and emphasized, "(In facilities throughout the business site, including the clean room) efforts are embedded to optimize (production) through process improvement, automation, and cost reduction, beyond simply boosting production capacity."
Hanwha Systems set a goal to increase the share of exports in total sales by 1.5 times from the current level by 2032 through the Gumi business site, which was completed at the end of last month. Originating from Samsung Thales, Hanwha Systems had until recently leased part of the Samsung Electronics Gumi 1 business site. Hanwha Systems plans to erase Samsung's traces entirely and make a fresh start here, expanding the global footprint of Korea's defense industry through efficiency and scale.
◇ Cutting-edge facilities such as Cheongung radar and transmit-receive modules… export share to 40% by 2032
The Gumi business site, with a total area of 89,000㎡, is a hub of advanced facilities and equipment. A representative example is the Cheongung system radar assembly and testing site, which features Korea's first one-stop production line. Cheongung, a medium-range surface-to-air guided weapon, intercepts various aircraft and missiles to defend the airspace. Hanwha Systems is responsible for the multifunction radar that detects threats within the Cheongung system, and this site enables antenna testing, assembly and testing of core components and systems, and maintenance, allowing the entire product life cycle to be carried out in one space.
A Hanwha Systems official said, "Normally, moving a single piece of equipment costs around 1 million to 1.5 million won, but the establishment of a one-stop production line has reduced the need to move equipment, significantly cutting costs." Hanwha Systems also secured a ceiling height of up to 20 meters in this space of more than 500 pyeong to maintain Cheongung mounted on vehicles. On this day, a large antenna array roughly 3 meters tall on a military truck was spinning 360 degrees at high speed for rotational force testing. Hanwha Systems plans to carry out the second mass production of Cheongung II here through the first half of 2027.
The assembly and testing site for transmit-receive modules, a core component of the active electronically scanned array radar (AESA radar) that serves as the "eyes" of the Korean fighter, is also considered a key facility of the Gumi business site. AESA radar quickly steers beams through more than 1,000 small transmit-receive modules fixed at the front. It can monitor a wider area and multiple targets simultaneously than previous equipment. Hanwha Systems developed transmit-receive modules that are smaller and lighter than before while improving efficiency.
When producing these, Hanwha Systems built shielding facilities composed of various patents to minimize transmit-receive interference and created a clean working environment at a level applied in medical device assembly. It also installed automated test equipment for mass production of transmit-receive modules. A Hanwha Systems official said, "The transmit-receive modules of AESA radar are our flagship product, and we need to make them in large quantities," adding, "Previously, functions were scattered across business sites such as Yongin and Gumi, but at this new business site we made it possible to do everything from development to maintenance in one space."
In addition, the materials management room adopted an automated system, eliminating the need to locate 20,000 types of materials manually. This system, which locates 300 items per hour, has boosted work efficiency by about 30%. With the expansion of the overall space, it has also become possible to simulate equipment such as the combat management system (CMS) for the Philippine Navy over several decades.
A Hanwha Systems official said, "All of this equipment will remain here for more than 30 years while customers use it," adding, "By using an environment where the actual equipment is installed, we support the stable operation of ships that are used for more than 30 years and build trust with customers."
Hanwha Systems plans to move beyond a domestic-focused model through the Gumi business site and raise the export share of total sales from 26% this year to 40% by 2032. It also set a sales target for the Gumi business site of 5.4 trillion won by 2032. Kim, the site head, said, "Right now, we have set up (the processes) by individual product and are producing accordingly, but we plan to automate this by Mar. next year," adding, "Through assembly automation, we are preparing to more than double capacity to respond to exports and rising domestic demand for radars and key electro-optical products."