{"id":124694,"date":"2026-08-19T10:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T10:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/124694\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T10:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T10:06:09","slug":"hanwha-breaks-into-the-u-s-army-raising-hopes-for-a-1-trillion-won-k9-howitzer-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/124694\/","title":{"rendered":"Hanwha Breaks Into the U.S. Army, Raising Hopes for a 1 Trillion Won K9 Howitzer Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\uc0ac\uc9c4\uc124\uba85\"\/ \uc0ac\uc9c4 \ud655\ub300
\nA Korean-made self-propelled howitzer has entered the home market of the world\u2019s most powerful military, the U.S. Army. Seventy-six years after South Korea received artillery support from U.S. forces during the Korean War, it has now become a country that exports howitzers to the United States. Hanwha Aerospace has broken into the U.S. Army\u2019s self-propelled howitzer market, where the service had struggled for nearly 30 years to develop its own system, beating out global defense giants after nine years of persistent sales efforts.<\/p>\n

Hanwha Aerospace said on the 19th that its U.S. subsidiary, Hanwha Defense USA, Inc., signed a contract with the U.S. Army to supply six K9 mobile howitzer (K9MH) prototypes. It is the first time a South Korean defense company has supplied a complete weapons system, rather than parts or modules, to the U.S. mainland.\n<\/p>\n

According to the U.S. Army, the contract runs for up to four years and includes an option to deliver 12 additional units after the initial six prototypes. The contract is worth $100.3 million, or about 141.7 billion won. If all options are exercised and the total order reaches 18 units, the cumulative value rises to $262.9 million, or about 371.5 billion won.\n<\/p>\n

During that period, the U.S. Army will refine the detailed requirements to match its operational concept. In general, after such an adjustment period, the U.S. military signs a final mass-production contract if there are no major defects or disqualifying issues. The Army\u2019s replacement program for its aging M777 lightweight towed 155mm howitzers is expected to cover about 500 units, and the mass-production contract alone is estimated at roughly 1 trillion won. Some observers say the actual project size could be even larger once ammunition, parts supply, and maintenance, repair and overhaul packages are added.\n<\/p>\n

\"\uc0ac\uc9c4\uc124\uba85\"\/ \uc0ac\uc9c4 \ud655\ub300
\nThe K9MH is a model that mounts the 155mm firepower system of the K9 self-propelled howitzer, which has already been proven in global markets, onto a wheeled platform. Instead of tank-style tracks, it uses wheels to achieve road mobility with a top speed of 100 km\/h and an operational range of 700 km. With an automated turret and autoloader, it can fire eight to nine rounds per minute and reduces the crew requirement to just two or three people.<\/p>\n

Analysts say the contract is the result of Hanwha strategically exploiting a gap left by the U.S. Army\u2019s painful history of failed development efforts. The Army tried to develop its own system three times, with Crusader in 1994, NLOS-C in 2009, and ERCA in 2018, but all of them collapsed. Crusader was shelved because it was no longer seen as strategically necessary, while NLOS-C was dropped amid a broader reorganization of future combat systems. ERCA, which aimed to extend range to 70 km, was halted in 2024 because of barrel wear issues. Hanwha first unveiled a real K9 at the AUSA Annual Meeting and Exposition in Washington in 2017, then displayed the system every year to build recognition in the U.S. market. In 2022, it proved compatibility with U.S.-made shells at Yuma Proving Ground, and in 2024 it also demonstrated the firing performance of the M982 Excalibur precision-guided round. After building trust, Hanwha received a request for information from the U.S. Army in August 2024 and turned that into a contract two years later.\n<\/p>\n

The significance of the deal is even greater when looking at the competitors Hanwha beat. It pushed out Rheinmetall AG, which has emerged as Europe\u2019s largest defense company, and BAE Systems, the former supplier for the U.S. Army\u2019s existing self-propelled howitzer program, the M109 Paladin. It also outperformed Leonardo S.p.A. and Anduril Industries, the Silicon Valley defense unicorn valued at $61 billion, in a consortium with Elbit America. In the field of traditional firepower systems, South Korea\u2019s proven manufacturing and technology strength appears to have outmatched both established European players and emerging U.S. tech challengers. Hanwha is also accelerating localization in the United States. At the end of April, Hanwha Defense USA signed a three-year lease for a vacant factory in Opelika, Alabama, and will use it as an integration and testing facility for the K9 family.\n<\/p>\n

Behind this achievement was the Hanwha Group owner family\u2019s two-generation commitment to nurturing the defense business. Chairman Kim Seung-yeon has long emphasized his belief that defense should be developed as a core national industry. During the early 2000s development of the K239 Chunmoo multiple rocket launcher, he pushed ahead with investment despite concerns over sunk costs, saying, “Even if it fails, that is fine. The technology for self-reliant defense will remain.”\n<\/p>\n

Senior Vice Chairman Kim Dong-kwan laid the foundation for today\u2019s Hanwha Aerospace by acquiring Samsung Techwin in 2014 and later Doosan Defense Systems. In March 2024, as soon as he detected the U.S. Army\u2019s move toward wheeled self-propelled howitzers, he created a dedicated team and responded quickly by recruiting a large number of experts from global defense firms and government agencies.\n<\/p>\n

[Jung Ji-sung]\n<\/p>\n

\nThis article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\uc0ac\uc9c4 \ud655\ub300 A Korean-made self-propelled howitzer has entered the home market of the world\u2019s most powerful military, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64443,64438,64441,4003,29011,64178,64437,355,277,354,64442,64439,7514,64436,64440,53658,36270],"class_list":["post-124694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hanwha-aerospace","tag-ausa","tag-crusader","tag-defense-companies","tag-defense-industry","tag-defense-minister","tag-erca","tag-firepower-systems","tag-hanwha","tag-hanwha-aerospace","tag-hanwha-group","tag-in-house-development","tag-nlos","tag-norway","tag-rheinmetall-ag","tag-rok-u-s-alliance","tag-senior-vice-chairman","tag-weapons-systems"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}