The South Korean defense contractor Hanwha showcased a variety of Army systems at AUSA 2023. (Brendon Smith / Breaking Defense)

WASHINGTON — South Korean industrial giant Hanwha Group has appointed industry veteran Michael Smith as the top executive of its US-focused defense arm, the company announced today.

Outgoing CEO John Kelly, who was named to the position in May 2021, will stay through mid-September to assist with the transition before “departing the company to pursue new opportunities,” the company stated.

Smith is a Navy veteran who has held senior leadership positions at HII, Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems, with roles that included president of HII’s nuclear division and Lockheed’s vice president of unmanned maritime systems.

Smith takes the top position at Hanwha’s US defense division at a time where the company is positioning itself for major sales breakthroughs to the Pentagon, whether that be in the realm of shipbuilding through its recent acquisition of Philly Shipyard or a pitch to sell howitzers to the US Army.

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The Korean conglomerate currently sits at No. 19 on Defense News’s list of top 100 defense companies by revenue, shooting up from No. 26 after defense revenue increased by 42 percent from 2022 to 2023.

In a statement, Smith said he sees “tremendous opportunity” for Hanwha to expand its role in the US defense industrial base.

“Hanwha not only brings proven platforms and technologies, it also brings demonstrated process maturity that has been successfully deployed across a multitude of products and markets,” he said. “Bringing cost effective operations and certainty around execution is as crucial to the Pentagon as combat capability and deterrence are to the American warfighter.”

Kelly joined Hanwha in 2020 as its top US business development executive, and Hanwha said his expertise helped the newly-formed US defense subsidiary build relationships with the Defense Department.

The US defense supply chain “tends to be quite well protected. And it makes it difficult for a foreign-owned business to break in,” Kelly told Breaking Defense in a 2023 interview. “I think you’ve seen that paradigm stretch now, because there is just literally not enough supply going around.”