Hanwha Aerospace has begun in earnest to develop aircraft engines for unmanned aircraft, a power source on the future aerial battlefield, together with the Korea AeroSpace Administration.
Hanwha Aerospace said on the 26th that it attended the "joint kickoff briefing for the development of next-generation dual-use aircraft engines and propulsion systems," presided over by the Korea AeroSpace Administration and held at the agency's headquarters in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province.
The project is a government-funded program for corporate coexistence, led by Hanwha Aerospace with research institutes including KARI, universities and small but strong companies collaborating on development. This is the first time an aircraft engine is being developed domestically for dual civil-military use.
Targeting completion in 2029, this engine will be the first in Korea to mount the starter-generator on the engine's rotating shaft rather than as an external unit. It can reliably supply up to 100 kW of power. Compared with engines of the same class, it delivers higher electrical output, and with the generator built in, the overall weight is relatively less heavy.
In particular, it is an engine optimized for unmanned aircraft that require a lot of power. For example, collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) that perform various missions with manned fighters, based on artificial intelligence (AI), require large amounts of power for computations needed in operations, radar, electronic warfare and sensor operations. For this reason, an engine's power generation capability is a key technical element.
Considering dual civil-military use, the engine will be developed as a "high-bypass" turbofan. By directing the airflow inside the engine toward higher fuel efficiency, it is also expected to be applicable to various civil aircraft, including small business jets.
Hanwha Aerospace plans to take the lead in capturing the global unmanned aircraft market, including engines for CCA, based on a 4,500-pound-force (lbf)-class engine. The industry expects that as CCA adoption accelerates, particularly in the United States, more than 3,000 CCAs will be in operation worldwide in the 2040s. Hanwha Aerospace plans to develop lightweight, electrified engines to secure competitiveness in the global unmanned aircraft engine market.
Park Hee-ho, chief technology officer of the aviation division at Hanwha Aerospace, said, "The global unmanned aircraft engine market is still in its early stage, with the competitive landscape not yet set," and added, "With preemptive technology acquisition, we will not only help strengthen the unmanned aircraft power of the Korean military but also do our best to rise as a leading company in the global market."