EDEX 2025: Hanwha Develops Unmanned Counter-Drone Launcher With Interceptor Drones on 6x6 Carrier.

Hanwha is developing a prototype unmanned counter-drone launcher that pairs guided interceptor drones with a low-profile 6x6 robotic vehicle. The concept points to how South Korea plans to fight in drone-heavy battlespaces shaped by lessons from Ukraine.

Hanwha is quietly moving a next-generation counter-drone system toward maturity, according to discussions with Army Recognition during the first week of December in EDEX 2025 in Egypt. The prototype, shown as a detailed scale model, blends a bank of guided interceptor drones with an unmanned 6x6 carrier that uses onboard sensors to feed targeting data to a nearby command post. Company representatives said the launcher is designed to operate as a dispersed robotic outpost that can push forward with mechanized units and engage hostile drones without exposing crews to increasingly lethal loitering munitions.
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Prototype unmanned 6x6 launcher carrying seeker-equipped interceptor drones with a 30-minute endurance and 100-kilometer range, designed for counter drone missions and operated remotely to reduce crew risk while providing mobile, networked air defense (Picture source: Army Recognition Group).

The system centers on a bank of launch canisters mounted on a low-profile 6x6 vehicle. Each tube carries a small fixed-wing drone with roughly 30 minutes of endurance and a claimed range of about 100 kilometers. The drones are fitted with a nose-mounted seeker, allowing them to home directly on hostile unmanned aircraft instead of relying solely on ground-based cueing. According to Hanwha representatives, the vehicle itself is designed to be unmanned and equipped with modern sensors feeding targeting data and situational awareness to a nearby command post, which handles mission planning and firing decisions.

Operationally, that combination of unmanned carrier and guided interceptor drones turns the launcher into a roaming counter-drone outpost. Hanwha has already field tested 6x6 unmanned ground vehicles for reconnaissance and support roles in the Republic of Korea Army, including an Unmanned Surveillance Vehicle with autonomous navigation, obstacle avoidance, and a 100-kilometer cruising radius. Those same mobility and autonomy features would allow the drone launcher variant to move with mechanized formations, screen flanks, or quietly occupy forward hide positions, then launch interceptors to thin out hostile quadcopters and loitering munitions before they reach high-value assets.

The choice to keep the carrier unmanned is more than a technology play. South Korean planners, like their Ukrainian counterparts, are watching how manned air defense crews are hunted by loitering munitions and first-person-view drones. A robotic launcher commanded from a dispersed shelter reduces crew exposure and enables more aggressive positioning, including use as a sacrificial decoy to draw enemy drones into a kill box that combines jamming, kinetic interceptors, and artillery. Hanwha is already supplying electronic jamming-based anti-drone systems to the South Korean military and has trialed hunter capture drones equipped with nets, which suggests this launcher could slot into a layered company or battalion-level counter-UAS architecture.

For export customers, the industrial appeal lies in modularity. Hanwha has promoted its 6x6 unmanned platforms and Tigon armored carrier internationally and has even placed the Arion SMET 6x6 UGV into US Army foreign comparative testing. The new launcher could be offered on a common robotic chassis or adapted as a pod for existing manned vehicles, such as the Chunmoo multiple rocket launcher, to create mixed batteries of rockets and counter-drone interceptors. Militaries could employ it to protect air defense and artillery units, reinforce air bases and logistics hubs, or secure borders and coastal infrastructure against cheap commercial drones.

Competing concepts already exist. Russia’s KUB-SM mounts a swarm of loitering munitions on a 6x6 truck, while China has displayed truck-based launchers for CH-901 loitering munitions. Western forces rely more on man-portable systems such as Switchblade or static counter-UAS batteries. Hanwha’s twist is to package counter-drone loitering munitions on a fully unmanned, networked ground vehicle from the outset, aligning with Seoul’s broader Dronebot combat vision and positioning South Korea as a serious competitor in the emerging market for robotic air defense.