Hanwha Aerospace Signs Contract for Multipurpose Unmanned Vehicle Performance Testing on US Mainland

Hanwha Aerospace's self-developed multipurpose unmanned vehicle Arion-SMET will undergo performance testing at a U.S. Marine Corps training ground. Based on technology recognized by the U.S. Department of Defense, the company plans to actively target the global military unmanned vehicle market.

Hanwha Aerospace announced on the 14th that it recently signed a contract with the U.S. Department of Defense for the Foreign Comparative Testing (FCT) project. Accordingly, the main test of Arion-SMET is scheduled to take place over three weeks starting in early December this year at the Marine Corps training ground on Oahu Island, Hawaii.

FCT is a project promoted by the U.S. Department of Defense to evaluate excellent technologies possessed by defense companies of allied countries worldwide and link them to development and acquisition projects pursued by the U.S. military. U.S. defense attach?s stationed in various countries identify over 300 foreign technologies, and the U.S. military conducts evaluations to select about 10 final candidates to proceed with the project. Upon successful completion of the test evaluation, the U.S. Department of Defense decides whether to proceed with related acquisition projects.

This local test will be conducted near the U.S. Marine Corps base in Hawaii. Arion-SMET performs missions such as transporting fuel, combat rations, drinking water, patients, and repair parts from a designated location to a point at a certain distance. Hanwha Aerospace plans to meet all the demanding performance requirements of the U.S. Marine Corps, including unmanned vehicle manufacturing technology and off-road autonomous mobility software technology, through this FCT test.

Previously, after being selected as an FCT project by the U.S. Department of Defense in October last year, Arion-SMET was demonstrated to the U.S. Forces Korea at Camp Humphreys. Arion-SMET is the first domestically developed military unmanned vehicle to be selected as an FCT project. Its top speed (43 km/h), range after electric charging (100 km), and payload capacity (550 kg) are on par with or exceed those of global top-tier equipment.

Arion-SMET can be operated in four modes: remote control, wired following along a line connected to troops, autonomous driving along a predetermined route, and exploratory autonomous driving that navigates unknown terrain to reach the destination. It also supports close combat by automatically tracking and aiming at targets with a remote control firing system and firing while maneuvering.

In particular, Hanwha Aerospace recently established research centers such as 'Autonomy HUB' and 'E-Drive HUB' at KAIST and Hanyang University to maintain world-class technologies like off-road autonomous driving.

Seo Young-woo, an executive at Hanwha Aerospace, said, "Following last year's demonstration to the U.S. Forces Korea, conducting tests with the U.S. Marine Corps, which carries out the most intense operational missions and training on the mainland, is based on the U.S. military's trust in Arion-SMET and its related technologies shown so far." He emphasized, "We will do our best to successfully complete this project and lay the foundation for the global market entry of unmanned system technologies."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.