The Republic of Korea Navy (RoKN) and Hanwha Systems ran a manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) exercise for mine countermeasures (MCM) at Busan Naval Base on 3 August in which an artificial intelligence system generated the search plan and directed a mix of crewed and uncrewed platforms, in what was billed as the navy’s first such trial.
The two parties named the event differently. Hanwha Systems called it a demonstration, while the navy called it a combat experiment – a distinction that tracks the difference between a vendor showcase and a capability trial.
Hanwha Systems is the group’s electronics, sensor and command-and-control arm, distinct from shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean, which holds the concept-design work for the RoKN’s reconnaissance uncrewed underwater vehicle and its mine warfare unmanned surface vehicle.
The scenario opened with enemy mines blockading Busan Port following an unexplained maritime explosion.
Assets comprised the 730-tonne minesweeper ROKS Ongjin, aerial reconnaissance drones, two unmanned surface vessels (USV) and one autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) tasked with subsurface search.
Both USVs came from Hanwha Systems – the company’s 30-tonne combat USV, first launched in June 2026, and a reconnaissance vessel designated Haeryeong.
The sequence is the substance of the exercise. A large language model platform received a natural-language order to generate a mission plan locating mines at the explosion coordinates, after which Haeryeong deployed with the minesweeper following, a drone began aerial reconnaissance, and the AUV executed the AI-generated search pattern.
Data from the AUV streamed in real time to Hanwha Systems’ Automatic Mine Detection System, which classified the contacts and fixed mine positions before the crewed and uncrewed vessels repositioned for disposal.
Control of the multiple platforms ran over Eutelsat OneWeb low-earth-orbit satellite communications, allowing simultaneous shore-based direction of several unmanned systems at once.
Throughout, the AI functioned as what Korean coverage termed an AI combat staff officer, analyzing weather and current conditions and recommending plans to Ongjin’s commanding officer rather than transmitting them directly – an operator-on-the-loop arrangement requiring human approval.
One limitation is on the record and materially narrows what was proven. Hanwha’s USVs are not equipped for minesweeping but acted as if they were during the trial, as the vessels are expected to be upgraded with mine-clearing capabilities in future.
The mines were likewise simulated rather than live, leaving the physical neutralization chain untested while the MUM-T command-and-control and autonomy layers were exercised end to end.
Yoo Moon-ki, head of Hanwha Systems’ maritime business division, said the demonstration proved the firm’s physical AI technology for optimizing operations between crewed and uncrewed maritime forces – remarks translated from Korean.
From the navy side, an officer with Navy Operations Command’s unmanned systems operations innovation division, Lee Kwang-hoon, said the concept was sufficiently valid for future maritime operations, with AI supporting mission planning and target analysis while the minesweeper and unmanned systems operate together.
The work has a procurement destination in MSH-II, the RoKN’s next-generation minehunter. In November 2024 the Defense Acquisition Program Administration awarded Hanwha Systems the combat management system for that vessel, with delivery by 2029 and a scope covering automated mine warfare mission planning, AI-based mine detection and integrated manned-unmanned mine search and disposal.
Rival LIG Nex1 holds the complementary underwater mine surveillance work, and results from both feed the RoKN’s Navy Sea GHOST roadmap, which targets testing of autonomous mine surveillance and neutralization systems by 2027.
The operational stakes are visible elsewhere. Western MCM capacity has thinned considerably, with the US Navy scrapping its Gulf minesweepers months before Iran mined the Strait of Hormuz.
Regional navies have meanwhile pursued autonomous underwater vehicle programs of their own, chasing much the same subsurface search capability the AUV provided at Busan.
MUM-T is advancing on the air side in parallel, with an M-346 crew having taken control of Baykar’s KIZILELMA in the first live K-Swarm trials.
