[비즈한국] Attention is being drawn to other defense companies forming a united front to counter the dominant position of Hanwha Group, which has established a comprehensive defense portfolio covering land, sea, and air, including Hanwha Aerospace012450, Hanwha Systems272210, and Hanwha Ocean042660.
LIG Nex1 participated in the ‘SITDEF 2025’ in Peru last month, where it set up a joint exhibition booth with HD Hyundai Heavy Industries to showcase next-generation frigates, submarines, key submarine-mounted systems, missiles, and air defense systems. In particular, during a promotional seminar for the export submarines developed independently by HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, LIG Nex1 introduced that it collaborated on the key systems and solutions to be mounted on the submarines that HD Hyundai Heavy Industries is proposing to Peru. The industry is analyzing this move as a strategic collaboration intended to check Hanwha Systems, which has already gained a head start in domestic ‘naval combat systems.’
Hanwha Systems is the only domestic defense firm that possesses indigenous ECS technology for naval vessels, which was previously used for domestic purposes. It successfully completed the development task of ‘Common Software (SW) for Naval Ship Integrated Control Systems,’ commissioned by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration's research institute, and verified its suitability for onboard use. Currently, it is also developing a system that integrates ECS, IBS (Integrated Bridge System), and CMS (Combat Management System), effectively securing most of the contracts for the ‘brains’ of naval vessels.
Until a few years ago, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries was one of Hanwha Systems' major clients. The first Ulsan-class Batch-III frigate, launched by HD Hyundai Heavy Industries in April 2023, also featured the Hanwha Systems combat management system. The same applies to the six 2,400-ton offshore patrol vessels (OPV) that HD Hyundai Heavy Industries won contracts for in the Philippines in 2022.
However, the situation changed rapidly after Hanwha Group acquired Hanwha Ocean (formerly Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering), a competitor to HD Hyundai Heavy Industries in the shipbuilding and defense sectors, last June. Anxiety began to grow that the combination of Hanwha Group's defense sector, represented by Hanwha Systems, and Hanwha Ocean's warship sector could act as a competitive bottleneck in the naval vessel field, which is one of HD Hyundai Heavy Industries' core businesses. Ultimately, this led HD Hyundai to collaborate with LIG Nex1’s naval combat systems to target the export market for warships.
Experts predict that as the three Hanwha defense companies—Hanwha Aerospace, Hanwha Systems, and Hanwha Ocean—combine their strengths to participate in domestic and international bidding, other defense companies will increasingly cooperate to keep Hanwha in check. An industry official remarked, “Recently, there has been an increase in weapon systems that leverage the synergy between the three Hanwha defense companies. Naval ship systems, in particular, are an area where the strengths of the three Hanwha companies shine even brighter because they require a complex integration of all defense-related elements. In response, other defense companies are expected to find breakthroughs by collaborating in their respective areas of expertise.”