LIG Nex1’s guided rocket passes US performance test

LIG Nex1 Co., a South Korean defense company, said on Monday that its Poniard guided rocket passed the final performance test in US Foreign Comparative Testing (FCT) conducted by the US Department of Defense, raising the chances for its entry into the US guided weapons market.

The guided rocket system hit all six targets in the test undertaken in a real-world scenario on Friday in waters off Hawaii.

LIG Nex1 has developed the guided rocket "Bigung," which can be mounted onto a small unmanned surface vehicle, mainly for export. It is Korea's first guided rocket system to pass the US performance test.

The FCT program evaluates advanced military technologies developed by US allies with the aim of integrating them into the US's military development and acquisition projects.

Bigung was developed as a weapons system for mounting on a vehicle to precisely attack North Korea's air flotation craft. It was deployed to the front line of the Korean peninsula in 2016 to support the South Korean Marine Corps.

In 2019, it was designated as a candidate weapon system for the FCT program. Installed on an unmanned surface vehicle developed by Textron Inc., a US aircraft company, the guided rocket has recorded an error-free hit rate straight through last week's final test, said LIG Nex1.

LIG Nex1 expects that successful completion of the final performance test will open the door for exports of the rocket system, which has thus far been adopted only by the South Korean military.

But it may take some time to secure export orders, as LIG Nex1 needs to address the US Navy's specific requirements and budget allocation in addition to contract verification.

Meanwhile, the company is in late-stage talks with a Middle Eastern country to develop a variant of a mid-sized unmanned reconnaissance surface vehicle, dubbed "Haegeom," tailored to that country's needs. The vehicle, also developed by LIG Nex1, can carry various weapons systems, including the Bigung.

Write to Kyung-Kyu Kim at khk@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article