The company was founded as Samsung Precision in 1977, later renamed Samsung Techwin. Under Samsung, the company established a precision instrument laboratory in 1978, and started making cameras in 1979. In technical cooperation with General Electric, it started manufacturing jet engines for Korean aircraft in 1980. Manufacture of self-propelled artillery began in 1984. It changed its name to Samsung Aerospace Industries in 1987 and started to make helicopters. It acquired Rollei, a German camera manufacturer, and Union Optics of Japan, a manufacturer of semiconductor equipment. In 1996 it developed the SB427 helicopter with Bell and began selling digital cameras branded as "Samsung Kenox" in 1997. The same year, it made the first KF-16fighter jet in Korea. It handed over the firm's aircraft business to Korea Aerospace Industries in 1999 and changed its name to Samsung Techwin in 2000. It exported the K-9 155mm self-propelled artillery to Turkey. In 2005, the company marked first place in Korean digital cameras market share and started a technical co-operation with Pentax. Samsung Techwin directly entered the European and North American closed-circuit television/surveillance market in 2008 under its own name, featuring a line of true day/night cameras and digital video recorders. In 2009, the company introduced a new series of digital IP-based cameras and network video recorders. Samsung Techwin and its bigger sister company Samsung Electronics announced in October 2009 that in 2010 Samsung Electronics CCTV camera division would be unified with Samsung Techwin's CCTV camera division. In recent years both companies appeared on the CCTV market with lineups that shared some technological underpinnings but in many ways differed, and in many markets they were direct competitors with overlapping distribution channels. Although some earlier speculation existed in specialty literature that the new company would appear under the name Samsung Security, official announcement stated that the CCTV division from Samsung Electronics will be transferred to Samsung Techwin. In February 2014, Samsung Techwin presented its new portfolio of IP cameras for vertical markets at the International Security, Safety and Fire Exhibition. In December 2014, Samsung Electronics announced the sale of its holding stake in its security division, Samsung Techwin, to South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group. On June 29, 2015, Hanwha completed the takeover and renamed it as Hanwha Techwin. In March 2016, Samsung Techwin America announced it would change its corporate name to Hanwha Techwin America. In 2017, Hanwha Techwin has spun off its SMT placement machine business as Hanwha Precision Machinery.
