Hanwha to develop Korean Army's next-gen communications network

Hanwha Systems Co. will develop core technologies for the South Korean Army’s tactical information communications network TICN-II, which will realize the future ground combat system Army TIGER 4.0. 

The defense and information technology service unit of South Korea's Hanwha Group announced on Wednesday that it has signed an agreement with the Korea Research Institute for Defense Technology Planning and Advancement (KRIT), an organization dedicated to planning and management of South Korea's defense sector, on a project to develop a hyper-connected mobile distributed tactical communications system worth 32.1 billion won ($24.71 million). 

Army TIGER refers to Korean Army's future combat system that maximizes efficiency by applying the Fourth Industrial Revolution technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) to various combat platforms. 

The project calls for developing 5G-based tactical mobile base stations, aerial relay drone systems, and tactical communications terminals to enable hyper-speed, hyper-connected, and hyper-low-latency command control on the move and ground and air networks. The total project size amounts to 40 billion won.

Hanwha will work as the project coordinator and will develop two types of mobile command and control communications systems--vehicle- and drone-mounted ones, a tactical communication terminal, and a tactical communications modem by 2026.

It will also complete the development of a system interworking with drones for aerial relay till then.

"Successful completion of the project will guarantee hyper-connected communications in various warfare environments anytime, anywhere," said Kim Kyu-baek, head of Hanwha System's C4I and ground system business division.

"Based on the technological capabilities and know-how accumulated so far, we will do our best to ensure that our military has future hyper-connected network capabilities," Kim added.

Write to Jae-Fu Kim at hu@hankyung.com