South Korea's Hanwha Group expands space push with AI

Hanwha Group, a South Korean conglomerate, is expanding its space business with a focus on synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites and AI-based data services.

South Korea plans to deploy about 40 SAR satellites for regional surveillance.

Hanwha Systems, the group’s defense unit, launched Korea’s first domestically developed small SAR satellite in December 2023 and is building a higher-resolution version for launch by 2026.

The company said it can spot objects as small as 15 centimeters.

Hanwha also supplies SAR payloads for Korea’s five-satellite 425 Project and is adding AI-based image analysis.

It is developing a mobile ground station designed to operate even if fixed communications are disrupted.

🔗 Source: The Korea Herald

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Global partnerships and varied tech bets shape Hanwha’s space strategy

Hanwha Systems is expanding beyond domestic work through overseas partnerships 1.
It is working with the UK’s BAE Systems, a British defense and aerospace company, on a multi-sensor satellite system for overseas customers that pairs Hanwha’s synthetic aperture radar with BAE’s radio frequency (RF) sensors 1.
It also plans to invest US$30 million in Kymeta, a US satellite communications company, which broadens its push into satellite communications and could open the way to future data services 2.
The effort sits within Hanwha Group’s broader set of longer-term businesses, which includes urban air mobility, where partner Overair, an electric aircraft developer, finished assembling its electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) prototype Butterfly and is getting ready for flight tests 3.

South Korea’s space race is reshaping its defense industry

Hanwha’s rise is heating up competition in South Korea’s defense sector, especially with LIG Nex1, a South Korean defense contractor 4.
Both companies are now facing off over a Korean missile defense system, ending a decades-old informal understanding that kept them out of each other’s core markets 4.
South Korea’s record US$73.1 billion defense order backlog, driven by export deals, is helping pay for advanced research and development including military satellite programs 4.
Government coordination is adding support through plans for the Korea Aerospace Administration, South Korea’s planned national space agency 3.