Page 82 - Australian Defence Magazine October 2021
P. 82

                     82 FROM THE SOURCE RICHARD CHO
OCTOBER 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
 RICHARD CHO
MANAGING DIRECTOR | HANWHA DEFENSE AUSTRALIA
Hanwha Defense Australia is well-known across Defence and industry, largely through its Redback and Huntsman Armoured Fighting Vehicle programs, but many may not be aware the Hanwha Group has annual revenues in excess of $70 billion and is the fourth-largest importer
of Australian goods into Korea. As the company grows its Australian footprint, ADM Group Editor Ewen Levick spoke recently with HDA Managing Director Richard Cho.
    ADM: Do you feel there is sufficient understanding of Hanwha’s overall corporate involvement in Australia to help underpin the Land 400 Phase 3 bid?
CHO: If you had asked me that question 12 months ago, I may have said no, but we are moving rapidly to build capa- bility and capacity and align with what Australia as a na- tion needs to do to become more secure;
progress in Australia and the quality of the solutions and support we are offering. We have come a long way in a short time and plan to go much further.
Hanwha’s initial focus in Australia has been on land sys- tems but that will broaden over time as we become more established and as further opportunities present them-
  and we are doing this from a very strong support base. The Hanwha group has revenues of over $70 billion annually, 2019 has produced more than 7,000 fight-
ing vehicles and has been in the front-
line supporting the Republic of Korea 2014 defence forces since the Korean War. Hanwha is also the fourth largest im-
porter of Australian goods into Korea, 1999 a fact not well known. But there is an
even greater depth to this. 1987
Both the Defence Strategic Update 1986 2020 and the Force Structure Plan 2020 provide guidance on what the Common- wealth is seeking from defence industry
PROFILE
Managing Director, Hanwha Defense Australia
Vice President Business Development and Strategy, Hanwha Defence International
Managing Director, Global Defence Industries
Executive Manager, Beacon
Graduated from University of Newcastle, Bachelor of Commerce, International Marketing
selves. We plan a presence in sea and air domains as well and are work- ing to bring the full benefit of the Hanwha Corporation to Australia. We have already signed agreements with Deakin University to collabo- rate on longer term research and have entered into an exploration of future manufacturing techniques involv- ing welding processes with K-TIG.
ADM: Is there potential linkage be- tween Redback and the US Bradley replacement program?
CHO: Hanwha Defense USA has teamed with Oshkosh to bid for the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle
        and prospective strategic partnerships.
Both documents make it clear the increasingly uncertain security environment requires significant change in the way military capability is procured and sustained. The Common- wealth has summarised this as wanting to achieve an inde- pendent, sovereign industrial capability which is robust, resil- ient and internationally competitive.
Our value to the customer will depend on how well we support the Commonwealth in the achievement of this aim. I would summarise this by saying the unique proposition that Hanwha brings is in the strategic alignment between what Korea needs to do to enhance their security and what Australia wants to do in the development of a resilient and sovereign defence capability.
As a relatively new company in Australia’s defence in- dustry, Hanwha is perhaps not generally as well-known as some of the longer-term participants in this market. How- ever, we are making sure the people involved in assessing our various offerings are well appraised of Hanwha’s rapid
program and was recently down-selected to compete in the design phase. The expertise of the Hanwha group in the production of more than 7,000 fighting vehicles will be fo- cussed on the program, just as it is for our Australian op- portunities. While the US requirement is different in some elements, particularly whether or not there will be crew in the turret, almost all the technology and ongoing develop- ment of the Redback is applicable to the Bradley replace- ment program. The lessons we have learned to date on the development of the Redback and our participation in ongo- ing programs will be of direct benefit to any work we do on future variants of the vehicle.
The hull itself, with its very high levels of protection and world-leading independent suspension system that does away with torsion bars, will be directly relevant, as will its
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