Hanwha Aerospace(012450) said on the 29th it was officially notified on the 28th by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration that it was selected as the contractor for the military multipurpose unmanned vehicle project.
Earlier, the agency convened the Defense Business Planning and Management Subcommittee and reviewed and approved Hanwha Aerospace's "Arion-SMET" as the model for the military multipurpose unmanned vehicle project.
With this, Hanwha Aerospace will carry out all development and force integration projects for multipurpose unmanned vehicles—considered a core asset of the Army's future combat system "Army Tiger 4.0"—as well as unmanned reconnaissance vehicles, explosive ordnance detection and disposal robots, and manned-unmanned combined CBRN reconnaissance vehicles.
A Hanwha Aerospace official said, "We feel a heavy responsibility in taking on the role of setting the standard for the Republic of Korea military's next-generation unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) force integration," adding, "As the leading domestic UGV platform company, we will complete a manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) system portfolio integrated with existing weapons systems such as the K9 self-propelled howitzer and the infantry fighting vehicle (IFV)."
Hanwha Aerospace plans to sign a mass production contract for Arion-SMET with the agency as early as next month. A Hanwha Aerospace official said, "We will minimize any capability gap by swiftly initiating mass production procedures."