Page 78 - Australian Defence Magazine October 2021

78 FROM THE SOURCE RICHARD CHO CONTINUED FROM PAGE 76
opportunities, including batteries, hydrogen technology and the emerging Urban Air Mobility market. The size, scope and scale of Hanwha allows us to do this. The out- come will be a whole lot more than just a new defence prime in Australia.
Our defence programs will allow us to establish ourselves in Australia, create a modern manufacturing hub in Victo- ria and ensure that this hub will do far more than just sup- port the current defence programs we are pursuing. This is our long-term aspiration.
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defence climate. Korea and Australia share common con- cerns; we are bound by our geography and our shared re- gional partners and competitors.
Also contributing to tighter collaboration is the strong and emerging partnership between the USA and Korea. The Hanwha Corporation signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the US last Decem- ber. The CRADA is the first of its kind between a Korean company and the US Department of Defense. It is a ma- jor agreement with the US military for collaborative R&D of defence technologies and is specifically with the Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Armaments Centre (DEVCOM AC).
ADM: Can you provide an overview of Australian compa- nies that you’ve engaged with across your portfolio, and what is the policy for engagement with Australian industry? CHO: Hanwha has engaged extensively across Australian industry and continues to do so. At last count, the team had engaged with almost 700 Australian companies since the start of 2020; companies that offer a huge variety of product and services to support our vehicle programs, the construction of our new manufacturing facility and our continued business mobilisation.
Looking specifically at Redback program, we are proud to say 12 companies have been ‘in the tent’ for more than two years as part of the Risk Mitigation Activity, with an additional 40 or so having been down-selected for future work packages. These companies span Australia and New Zealand and are contributing capabilities from machining and fabrication, through to specialist engineering services such as software development and human factors engi- neering and manufacturers of vehicle sub-systems. Many of these companies recently completed the first step in our vendor onboarding process which was a fantastic op- portunity for representatives from our parent company to meet the people and get a better appreciation of Austra- lian industry.
“WE ARE WATCHING CLOSELY AS AUSTRALIA DEVELOPS ITS REQUIREMENTS IN THIS AREA AND WE WILL CERTAINLY BE OFFERING UNMANNED SOLUTIONS TO THE COMMONWEALTH WHEN THEIR REQUIREMENTS ARE FULLY DEVELOPED”
ADM: How will the updated MoU on defence industry cooperation between South Korea and Austra- lia benefit Hanwha?
CHO: It is difficult to say as the up- dated Defence agreement is still un- der negotiation. We do know that the new agreement will pave the way for deeper defence-industrial engage- ment between the two countries. The clearest indication we have is the Australian Department of De- fence’s public statement that the updated MOU on defence industry cooperation would modernise exist-
ing arrangements to facilitate enhanced industry and mate- rial collaboration. We understand Korea wants to finalise the updated agreement to coincide with the 60th Anniversary of Australian-South Korean diplomatic ties in late October 2021.
If I was going to hazard a guess, I would say it will be- come much easier to transfer defence-related IP, collabo- rate on research programs and, hopefully, align future ca- pability and development priorities between our respective countries. I see this as essential in our emerging regional
A rendering of Hanwha’s AS-9 Huntsman self-propelled howitzer in Australian Army camouflage.
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