Hanwha Defense gets ARION-SMET UGV selected for US Army field tests.

Hanwha Defense’s state-of-the-art unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) will join the U.S. Army’s competitive field test and evaluation program. The UGV, codenamed ARION-SMET, has been selected as one of the equipment for the Foreign Comparative Testing (FCT) operated by the Office of the Secretary of Defense under the U.S. Department of Defense. The FCT aims to test items and technologies of U.S. foreign allies that have a high Technology Readiness Level (TRL) so as to satisfy valid defense requirements quickly and economically.
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The 2-ton ARION-SMET is a 6x6 UGV evolved from a 4x4 multipurpose UGV developed in 2019 under a civil-miliary joint research and development program led by Hanwha Defense (Picture source: Hanwha Defense)

This is the first time that a South Korean unmanned weapon system has been chosen for performance tests in the United States, paving the way for potential cooperation with the U.S. military’s future modernization programs. “This is a key achievement for Hanwha Defense and the South Korean defense industry”, said Executive Vice President, Youngwoo Seo, head of the Department of Defense Robotics and Autonomous Systems Development. “ARION-SMET’s participation in the FCT program proves our technologies of defense robotics and unmanned systems are already world-class and recognized competitive enough to enter the U.S. and other foreign markets”.

Following the FCT decision, the company is discussing the detailed measures with the U.S. military authorities on how to conduct field tests on mission capabilities, as the comparative tests on the ARION-SMET are expected to take place by the year’s end at the earliest, at a U.S. Army base.

ARION-SMET is an acronym for Autonomous and Robotic systems for Intelligence Off-road Navigation – Small Multi-purpose Equipment Transport. The 2-ton vehicle is a 6x6 UGV evolved from a 4x4 multipurpose UGV developed in 2019 under a civil-miliary joint research and development program led by Hanwha Defense. The South Korean Army successfully operated the ARION-SMET in 2021 to trial the vehicle’s tactical operational capability.

Following the FCT decision, the company is discussing the detailed measures with the U.S. military authorities on how to conduct field tests on mission capabilities (Picture source: Hanwha Defense)

The ARION-SMET was built primarily for supporting infantry operations such as transporting munition and weapons; evacuating the wounded; remote-controlled or autonomous reconnaissance and surveillance; and close combat support. The vehicle has a modularity-driven design to support various missions.

Some of the key technologies of the ARION-SMET include autonomous off-road navigation; devices for tethering to follow a soldier or vehicle; autonomous homing for communication failure; and software for supporting MUM-T operations. The vehicle is armed with a Deep Neural Network (DNN)-based remote-controlled weapons station (RCWS), which can detect/ track enemy soldiers, localize the source of gunfire and fire back in the direction of the gunfire coming from. With these innovative functionalities, the ArionSMET is optimized for supporting manned and unmanned teaming (MUM-T) operations for infantry troops.

“Along with those great, legacy weapon systems such as K9, Hanwha Defense has striven for delivering robotics and autonomous systems with superb and tailor-made capabilities since 2006,” said EVP Youngwoo Seo. “The ARION-SMET is the latest edition to this effort that would stand strong in the era of ushering in Manned-Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T), and recently gets lots of attention from the domestic and international market as its functionalities are easily expandable and its capabilities are very competitive.”

The electric-powered ARION-SMET offers high mobility with a maximum speed of 43km/h on paved roads and 34km/h on unpaved roads. The vehicle can drive up to 100km when fully charged, and has a maximum payload capacity of 550kg.

The ARION-SMET is armed with a Deep Neural Network (DNN)-based remote-controlled weapons station (RCWS), which can detect/ track enemy soldiers, localize the source of gunfire, and fire back in the direction of the gunfire coming from (Picture source: Hanwha Defense)