LIG Defense&Aerospace(079550) said it will develop an unmanned surface vessel to support firefighters' water rescue operations by using unmanned system technology accumulated in the defense field.
LIG D&A said on the 27th it was selected as the lead research and development agency for a project to develop an unmanned surface vessel for National Fire Agency water rescue personnel. The project is overseen by the Civil-Military Cooperation Promotion Agency and is a civil-military technology cooperation project jointly pursued by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration and the National Fire Agency, serving as an example of the two agencies' expanded civil-military technology cooperation policy.
Water rescue sites often pose overlapping risks such as swift currents, threatening the safety not only of those being rescued but also of rescue personnel. The unmanned surface vessel that LIG D&A will develop will be deployed to high-risk areas in bad weather to grasp and relay on-site conditions in real time and handle the initial response. The company said this will lay the groundwork for shifting the rescue system, which has been manpower-centered, to unmanned-centered.
LIG D&A plans to apply autonomous navigation, obstacle avoidance, remote command and control, and sensor integration technologies verified during the development of military unmanned surface vessels to this project. From the design stage, the company decided to proceed with development by visiting water rescue units under the National Fire Agency to collect on-site feedback.
With this project as a starting point, the company plans to expand its business scope to maritime unmanned systems overall and pursue exports to Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern countries with insufficient rescue infrastructure.
Since 2015, LIG D&A has developed the Haegum series of unmanned surface vessels as a civil-military task. By 2027, through the "reconnaissance unmanned surface vessel system development" project, the company plans to supply to the Navy Korea's first unmanned surface vessel to receive a combat suitability rating.
Shin Yong-hwa, head of the future battlefield business division at LIG D&A, said, "This project will both secure safety at dangerous rescue sites and serve as a starting point for unmanned surface vessels to expand into the civilian sector," adding, "We will expand our business scope to the global market based on our accumulated technological capabilities."