Hanwha Aerospace and Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) have joined hands to localize aircraft armaments, including long-range air-to-air missiles to be installed on domestically produced aircraft. The key is to cooperate as one team from development to expanding exports.
Hanwha Aerospace and KAI said on the 10th that they signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on "cooperation in the aircraft armament business" at the World Defense Show (WDS 2026) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on the 9th local time.
Through this MOU, Hanwha Aerospace and KAI agreed to cooperate on integrating aircraft armaments into the Korean next-generation fighter KF-21 and the FA-50 platforms and to pursue joint marketing for the export of aircraft and aircraft armaments.
KAI CEO Cha Jae-byung said, "Recently, overseas customers have been demanding not only aircraft platforms but the entire operating system as a Korean package," and added, "Domestic defense companies will join forces to expand defense exports through joint marketing."
Hanwha Aerospace CEO Son Jae-il said, "I am confident that we can achieve our goal of developing domestic aircraft armaments through the synergy between our company's capabilities, built by carrying out various missile development projects such as air-to-air, air-to-ground, and surface-to-air, and KAI's integrated fighter system capabilities."