Pentagon-Recognized Stealth Paint Maker ETL Teams Up with HD Hyundai Heavy Industries for Stealth Warships

Specialized coating company ETL, recognized by the U.S. Department of Defense for its top-tier stealth paint manufacturing capabilities, signed a business agreement with HD Hyundai Heavy Industries today (the 14th) for the development of stealth crewed and uncrewed warships.

Under the agreement, the two companies will develop next-generation crewed and uncrewed warships by combining HD Hyundai Heavy Industries' warship design and development capabilities with ETL's advanced stealth coating technology.

In particular, as the unmanned and advanced transformation of naval forces accelerates recently, the importance of stealth performance to minimize a vessel's detectability is growing larger. Through this collaboration, the two companies expect to further strengthen the core competitiveness of future warships.

Based on this cooperation, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries plans to apply domestic innovative defense technologies to its warships to boost its competitiveness in domestic and international naval markets.

ETL's stealth paint "ION 1" received an evaluation from the U.S. Department of Defense Foreign Comparative Testing (FCT) program stating that it has reached "the highest Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 9, allowing for immediate application to ground, air, and naval forces."

An experiment measuring the detectability rate by applying ION 1 to a South Korean Navy patrol boat also demonstrated high stealth performance.

Attending today's signing ceremony were Jung Woo-man, head of the Naval Ship and Medium-Sized Ship Planning Division at HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, and Hwang Young-woo, CEO of ETL.

"We will actively discover outstanding domestic defense technologies and combine them with our warship development capabilities to secure next-generation warships optimized for future battlefield environments and market competitiveness," said Joo Won-ho, President of HD Hyundai Heavy Industries.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.