South Korea’s leading conglomerate Hanwha Group on Wednesday unveiled plans to become one of world’s top 10 player in comprehensive defense industry by 2025 by raising 12 trillion won ($11.1 billion) in sales and 1 trillion won in operating income. The plans were announced at the conglomerate headquarters in Janggyo-dong, central Seoul, by five defense-related units Hanwha Corporation, Hanwha Techwin Co., Hanwha Land Systems Co., Hanwha Systems Co., and Hanwha Defense Systems Corp.

Hanwha Group, which was founded in 1952 as Korea Explosives, plans to focus on boosting defense as its strategic business. Choi Se-hoon, head of strategy planning at Hanwha Corporation, said that defense business is not only to promote steady growth of the group but also to boost the country’s self-defense capability. Korea should develop new advanced weapons and expand exports in the field, the official added.

Last year, Hanwha Corporation raised 1.36 trillion won in defense sales by developing and manufacturing precision munitions and guided weapons system.

Hanwha Land Systems, which spun off from Hanwha Techwin in July, last year, is focused on exporting K9 self-propelled artillery. The company has already exported mobile guns to Turkey, Poland, India, and used ones to Finland, and it is engaged in initial stage to export them to Norway and Estonia.

An unnamed official from Hanwha Land Systems said that K9 self-propelled guns performed well in recent test operation in extreme environments such as in a desert and in minus 30 to 40 degrees Celsius temperature. The company aims to export them to Europe, in particular, southern Europe, and the Middle East including the United Arab Emirates, the official added.

Hanwha Systems manufactures electronic equipment for the army, navy, and air force. The company’s major product is radars used in battlegrounds that act as the military’s eyes and ears.

An unnamed official from Hanwha Systems said that it aims to expand its market share in Korea’s defense electronic equipment industry to above 60 percent by 2025 and also increase the share of its overseas business to above 30 percent to raise 3 trillion won in sales and 300 billion won in operating income.

By Moon Ji-woong and Lee Eun-joo

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