South Korea’s Hanwha debuts K-NIFV infantry fighting vehicle with AI drone defense.

Hanwha Aerospace revealed the Korea New Infantry Fighting Vehicle (K-NIFV) at Seoul ADEX 2025, introducing a next-generation unmanned turret and counter-drone defense suite. The platform marks South Korea’s latest step toward self-reliant, export-ready armored vehicles designed for drone-heavy battlefields.

Seoul, Oct 21, 2025: Hanwha Aerospace used the Seoul ADEX 2025 show to unveil the Korea New Infantry Fighting Vehicle, or K-NIFV, a next-generation tracked IFV derived from the Redback platform. On the Hanwha stand, the company emphasized a new unmanned turret armed with a 30 mm cannon and growth to a 40 mm cased-telescoped gun, plus provision for an indigenous anti-tank missile. The headline feature is a multi-layered counter-drone suite that fuses radar-guided remote weapons, AI-assisted sights, and a hard-kill active protection system. Hanwha says the design raises domestic content and lowers life-cycle costs while preserving Redback-level protection and mobility.
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Hanwha’s K-NIFV is a Redback-derived IFV with an unmanned 30 mm turret (ATGM-ready), eight-troop capacity, and layered counter-drone plus APS protection (Picture source: Hanwha Aerospace).

The K-NIFV reuses the Redback’s hull architecture but shifts to an unmanned turret to free internal volume for an eight-soldier dismount team and additional mission payload. Company literature and officials indicate a modular armament set: baseline 30 mm, optional 40 mm CTA cannon, a coaxial 7.62 mm, and twin canisters for a homegrown ATGM now in development under Hanwha’s Precision Guided Munitions line. Subsystems that were foreign on Redback migrate to Korean suppliers, with SNT Dynamics taking the main gun and transmission, Hanwha Systems providing the active protection and sights, and Hanwha’s own remote weapon station integrated with cueing radar for C-UAS work.

Hanwha plans K-APS as the hard-kill layer, replacing the Redback’s earlier Iron Fist fit, while domestic mine-protection kits replace foreign packages. The C-UAS architecture is staged: detection and AI-tracking via commander and gunner sights, radar-slaved RCWS fire against small drones at roughly one kilometer, then APS intercepts inside a few hundred meters. This layered design explicitly targets loitering munitions and small quadcopters that have punished armored formations in Ukraine and the Middle East.

The K-NIFV grew out of an “export Redback modification” effort launched in October 2024 with a budget of 34.5 billion won. Hanwha says the concept passed critical design review and is planned to be completed in March 2028. The firm is positioning the first block to compete to replace South Korea’s aging K200A1 reconnaissance vehicles, with a Block-2 evolution eyed as a K21 successor that adds a serial hybrid powertrain and active suspension. Countries flagged for early outreach include Romania, Italy, Norway, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia, signaling a broad export push from day one.

On the ground, the K-NIFV’s operational proposition is clear: an unmanned turret lowers the silhouette and removes crew from the turret ring, increasing survivability and usable volume for troops and mission kits. The vehicle is designed to fight in contested electromagnetic and drone-saturated airspace, combining hunter-killer sights, stabilized fire control, and an RCWS that can be radar-queued to swat commercial-class UAVs. Optional packages under discussion include organic reconnaissance drones and manned-unmanned teaming links to small UGVs, enabling the IFV to clear intersections, scout defilades, and provide beyond-line-of-sight fires without exposing the squad. For operators, the domestic supply chain is as much a capability as the hardware itself, promising faster upgrades and fewer export bottlenecks.

The K-NIFV lands as South Korea’s defense industry enters a decisive growth phase. ADEX 2025 is the country’s largest arms fair to date, a stage for AI-enabled systems that Seoul is funding amid an 8.2 percent defense-budget rise proposed for 2026. With North Korea’s accelerating missile and UAV programs, and with European armies rearming after Ukraine, Seoul’s mix of competitive pricing, fast delivery, and credible technology has turned K-defense into one of the world’s fastest-growing export engines. The K-NIFV, with its domestic content and anti-drone pedigree, is built to ride that wave.

Written by Evan Lerouvillois, Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group.

Evan studied International Relations, and quickly specialized in defense and security. He is particularly interested in the influence of the defense sector on global geopolitics, and analyzes how technological innovations in defense, arms export contracts, and military strategies influence the international geopolitical scene.