“Revolutionizing the Skies: Hanwha Aerospace and GA-ASI Unite for UAS Breakthroughs”

Hanwha Aerospace has secured a partnership with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) at AUSA 2025 to collaboratively develop the Gray Eagle Short Takeoff and Landing (GE-STOL) unmanned aerial vehicle.

This agreement establishes a co-development and co-manufacturing alliance between the two aerospace companies in South Korea and the United States, with the goal of delivering state-of-the-art, runway-independent UAV solutions.

The pact was formalized by Sun Kim, Senior Executive Vice President at Hanwha Aerospace, and Dave Alexander, President of GA ASI, during a ceremony on the second day of the AUSA exposition.

As part of the arrangement, the organizations will design and construct a GE STOL demonstrator aircraft, with the inaugural flight planned for 2027 and the first customer deliveries anticipated in 2028. With the GA-ASI-funded prototype already undergoing flight evaluations, this collaboration is expected to provide the quickest and most secure pathway to achieving operational readiness.

Hanwha will supply critical components for the UAS, including engines, landing gear, fuel systems, avionics, and mission payloads, while also establishing a domestic production facility in South Korea for the final assembly and manufacturing of the GE-STOL, with GA-ASI responsible for overall system integration.

“GA-ASI and Hanwha are committed to investing in this project and developing capabilities for design and production in South Korea,” remarked GA-ASI President David R. Alexander. “We aim to leverage the expertise from both companies to promptly deliver the Gray Eagle STOL to global customers.”

This collaboration forms part of Hanwha’s broader investment strategy in the unmanned aerial vehicle field, aimed at boosting its capabilities to manufacture and meet next-generation UAS demands with improved cost efficiency and reduced development risks, both domestically and globally.

“The collaborative production of GE STOL in South Korea and the U.S. will create job opportunities and assist Hanwha in attracting skilled professionals within relevant sectors while fostering our domestic (Korean) UAS industry ecosystem,” commented Jae-il Son, President and CEO of Hanwha Aerospace. “Hanwha is positioned to evolve into a holistic UAS entity, capable of overseeing every phase from design to production and maintenance, utilizing our expertise that spans from fighter jet engines to radar and avionics systems.” The Gray Eagle STOL is distinguished as the sole medium-altitude, long-endurance UAS in its class, offering true runway independence, capable of operating from semi-prepared terrains, such as dirt roads, open fields, beaches, and parking lots. This greatly enhances its operational utility by enabling multi-mission functionalities for Reconnaissance, Surveillance, and Target Acquisition (RSTA), counter-UAS efforts, and various operations, including Manned-Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T), while utilizing the modular open systems framework of GE STOL.

In November 2024, Hanwha and GA-ASI achieved a successful flight of the GE STOL demonstrator, dubbed Mojave, from the South Korean Navy’s amphibious landing ship ROKS Dokdo (LPH-6111) near the Pohang coastline. It has also been launched and retrieved from the British aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales (2023), undergone live-fire evaluations at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona (2024), and executed dirt strip operations (2023), underscoring GA-ASI’s progress in runway independence and operational versatility.