[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] Hanwha Defense's AI-based cutting-edge multipurpose unmanned vehicle will be deployed for military trial operation in the second half of this year. The multipurpose unmanned vehicle is a state-of-the-art weapon system that has not yet been operationally deployed anywhere in the world. Hanwha Defense's product boasts world-class performance with significantly increased payload capacity and cruising range, aiming for export as well.
According to Hanwha Defense on the 31st, the Army recently notified the Defense Acquisition Program Administration that Hanwha Defense's "Intelligent Multipurpose Unmanned Vehicle" is suitable for military trial operation as an export weapon system. Accordingly, the Army plans to verify the mission performance, ease of operation and handling, and tactical operability of the intelligent multipurpose unmanned vehicle prototype in the second half of this year.
The multipurpose unmanned vehicle is a 2-ton class vehicle assigned to infantry units. It is a future defense robot system that performs various missions such as transporting supplies and ammunition, reconnaissance, casualty evacuation, and close combat support in high-risk battlefield environments instead of soldiers.
Hanwha Defense first developed a 4-wheel drive electric propulsion infantry multipurpose unmanned vehicle domestically in 2016 as a civilian-military cooperative project. Through military trial operations and combat experiments, it sufficiently demonstrated operational suitability and safety. In December last year, it was recognized for the successful development of the multipurpose unmanned vehicle and received the Minister’s Award for the "2020 Civil-Military Technology Cooperation Project Excellence" from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
During the Army Drone-Bot Combat Unit trial operation and the Education Command combat experiment conducted in 2019, the latest unmanned operation technologies applying AI such as △remote driving △automatic soldier following △autonomous movement and return △obstacle avoidance △drone communication relay △gunshot detection remote firing mode were successfully demonstrated.
The intelligent multipurpose unmanned vehicle to be unveiled in July features a 6-wheel drive platform, with major performance improvements in maximum speed, payload capacity, and cruising range compared to previous models, making it an export-oriented product.
Most notably, the payload capacity has more than doubled from the previous 200kg, dramatically enhancing combat support capabilities such as transporting heavy combat supplies and evacuating wounded soldiers. It can travel 100km on a single charge, nearly four times the previous cruising range of 25km.
In addition to military communication networks, it supports auxiliary communication relay using commercial 5G/LTE networks. It can perform remote and autonomous driving and large data transmission and reception seamlessly even in mountainous terrain. Particularly, it is equipped with a "smart autonomous return" function that attempts to reconnect communications for one minute when communication is lost, and if recovery fails, returns to the original departure point.
Jeon Young-jin, head of Hanwha Defense’s unmanned business team, said, "The intelligent multipurpose unmanned vehicle is a cutting-edge unmanned solution developed reflecting the rapid growth and technological trends of the overseas unmanned vehicle market. We will lead the overseas market entry of domestically produced unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) by developing the best-in-class multipurpose unmanned vehicle that outperforms prototypes from major advanced countries."
Meanwhile, Hanwha Defense has the most experience and proven technology in Korea, having carried out more than 15 national projects related to unmanned systems and defense robots since 2006. Besides the multipurpose unmanned vehicle, it is also involved in the development of unmanned reconnaissance vehicles and explosive detection and disposal robot systems.
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