General Atomics, Hanwha to produce Gray Eagle drone in South Korea

AUSA 2025 — General Atomics and South Korea’s Hanwha Aerospace have signed a deal to jointly develop and produce a short takeoff and landing (STOL) version of the US company’s Gray Eagle drone with the ultimate goal of establishing a production facility for the aircraft in South Korea.

Under the agreement, signed today on the show floor of the Association of the US Army conference, the companies will build a production-representative drone with first flight set for 2027 and delivery scheduled for 2028. Work is set to begin immediately, and although no customers were announced as part of the agreement, the companies intend to market the Gray Eagle STOL variant to the Pentagon and South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense, they stated in a news release.

General Atomics and Hanwha intend to stand up a production facility in South Korea for the manufacture and final assembly of the Gray Eagle, with General Atomics remaining responsible for final integration of mission systems. For the first aircraft, both companies would handle elements of production, with General Atomics carrying out work in California and Hanwha doing its work at its facilities in Korea, General Atomics spokesman C. Mark Brinkley told Breaking Defense.

“We are talking to a number of potential customers and anticipate new orders to arrive in parallel to standing up the production lines and building the first production representative aircraft,” he said.

General Atomics first introduced its STOL variant of the Gray Eagle in 2021, and since then has flown its test aircraft — known as Mojave — in a number of demonstrations.  In one such flight, General Atomics and Hanwha operated Mojave from the South Korean Navy’s amphibious landing ship ROKS Dokdo while the ship was underway off the coast of South Korea.

“Co-producing GE [Gray Eagle] STOL in South Korea and the U.S. will create jobs and help Hanwha secure talent in related fields as well as foster our domestic (Korean) UAS industry ecosystem,” Jae-il Son, president and CEO of Hanwha Aerospace, stated in a news release. “Hanwha is poised to become a comprehensive UAS company capable of executing everything from design to production and maintenance based on our capabilities, which span from fighter jet engines to radar and avionics equipment.”

Both companies “are committed to investing in this project and building development and production capabilities in South Korea,” GA-ASI President Dave Alexander stated.