Seoul ADEX 2025 Opens

ONE of South Korea’s largest international defence exhibitions–the Seoul International Aerospace & Defense Exhibition (ADEX) 2025, commenced today, with a record number of companies set to showcase cutting edge military technologies at Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, just south of Seoul.

Kicking off today was the public segment of the show, with the trade days set to take place at KINTEX in Goyang, northwest of Seoul from Oct 20-24. ADEX was designed to boost export opportunities for domestic defence products and promote technology exchanges with global manufacturers. This emphasises the nation’s ambitions of being one of the top materiel exporters of the world.

South Korea’s growing defence industry will be in the spotlight over the next week, with local firms aiming to make ADEX 2025 the best platform in the nation for defence and diplomacy. Co-hosted by the Korea Aerospace Industries Association (KAIA) and the Korea Defense Industry Association (KDIA), the event record-setting 600 companies from 35 countries will exhibit their latest in military hardware and technologies in the indoor exhibition space at KINTEX which has been expanded 9% in contrast to the 2023 event, featuring around 2,900 booths.

To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Korea-US alliance, US Forces Korea (USFK), will also showcase military assets, including ground equipment for the first time at ADEX as well as other US Air Force assets. As many as 114 delegates from 55 nations are slated to attend, a list which includes the defence ministers of Australia, Malaysia, and Iraq, who happen to be three major customers of burgeoning Korea’s defence industry.

Hanwha Group will exhibit their state-of-the-art artificial intelligence-based (AI) defence systems. The company is expected to debut the Themis-K unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), which fuses Hanwha’s remotely controlled weapon station (RCWS) with Milrem Robotics’ Themis.

Also to be displayed is the upcoming unmanned K9A3 Thunder which is capable of driving and positioning itself autonomously and Hanwha Ocean’s range of naval vessels including the KSS-III submarine. On top of that, the Chunmoo 3.0 was launched, the world’s first combination of precision strike missiles and loitering munitions.

Meanwhile, Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) highlighted the company’s KUH-1 Surion, lah-1 Miron helicopters and accompanying manned-unmanned concepts, as well as the popular FA-50. Furthermore, the nation’s KF-21 which is still being developed took to the skies over the event, performing precise aerial manoeuvres during show’s opening ceremony and wowing the public for the first time since passing several important tests.

“The KF-21 is now in the final phase of flight tests for air-to-air weapons integration, with mass production deliveries beginning in 2026. By 2028, we will expand its air-to-ground strike capabilities. Successful tests have already been conducted with short-range Diehl Defence IRIS-T and medium-range MBDA Meteor missiles, as well as aerial refuelling trials.”

LIG Nex1 will unveil their short- and medium-range air-to-air missile (AAM) models to be mounted on the KF-21, the first public showing of the indigenously developed AAMs. This is a considerable stride towards reducing the country’s dependence on imported aerial munitions.

Also being displayed is Hyundai Rotem’s K2PL main battle tank (MBT) developed for export to Poland, the K808 wheeled armoured vehicle for export to Peru along with the HR-Sherpa, an AI-based autonomous multipurpose unmanned vehicle, and an open hydrogen fuel-cell platform developed in collaboration with Hyundai Motor.

Industry giant Boeing plans to highlight its wide selection of aircraft, including the MQ-28 Ghost Bat unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV), F-15K Slam Eagle fighter jet, E-7 Airborne Early Warning & Control (AEW&C) aircraft, P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft (MPA), AH-64 Apache attack helicopter and CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift helicopter. Another aerospace giant–Airbus displayed the H225M, ACH160 helicopters and surface-to-air missile (SAM) operation centre and the A330 multi-role tanker transport (MRTT). South Korea currently operates 60 helicopters and 30 military transport aircraft from Airbus.–shp/adj/dl (Pix:CHINAMIL)