Romania has received its first K9 self-propelled howitzers, K10 ammunition resupply vehicles and K12 recovery vehicles from South Korea’s Hanwha Aerospace under its tracked self-propelled howitzer program.
Romania signed a contract worth nearly $1 billion with Hanwha on July 9, 2024, for 54 K9 howitzers and 36 K10 resupply vehicles, along with ammunition and tracked and wheeled support vehicles. The deal includes 18,000 rounds of 155 mm ammunition. An initial batch of 18 K9s and 12 K10s is being built in South Korea, and the remaining vehicles are due to be produced in Romania.
The contract originally set the first delivery for early 2027. Hanwha said in July that the first vehicles would arrive in the second half of 2026 for testing and evaluation, with the rest of the initial batch following in early 2027. The first Romanian K9, named Tunetul, Romanian for Thunder, rolled off Hanwha’s production line in South Korea in April.
The K9 is a tracked howitzer that fires 155 mm shells from a 52-caliber barrel and can move off quickly after firing to avoid return fire. Romania is the tenth country to buy it and the sixth NATO member, after Türkiye, Poland, Norway, Finland and Estonia. The new guns will replace Soviet-era 152 mm artillery and older 155 mm systems still in Romanian service.
The K10 is built on the same chassis as the K9 and keeps the howitzer supplied in the field. It carries 104 shells and 504 propellant charges and transfers them automatically at up to 12 rounds a minute, reloading a K9 completely in about 37 minutes. Romania is the third K10 operator, after Norway and Australia.
Production is set to move to Romania. On Feb. 11, Hanwha broke ground on the Hanwha Armoured Vehicle Centre of Excellence Europe in Petrești, Dâmbovița County, northwest of Bucharest. It is the company’s first factory in Europe. The site covers about 181,000 square meters (1.9 million square feet) and will include assembly lines, testing facilities and a 1,751 m (5,744-foot) driving track. Hanwha aims to source up to 80% of the work from Romanian industry, with partners including Iveco and Pro Optica.
In July, Hanwha outlined plans to invest €1.3 billion ($1.48 billion) in defense production and technology transfer in Romania. The company says the Petrești plant could later build infantry fighting vehicles, long-range precision strike systems and unmanned ground vehicles, and estimates that expansion tied to an infantry fighting vehicle program could create up to 2,000 jobs.
Under the 2024 contract, all 54 howitzers and 36 resupply vehicles are due within five years of signing.
Source: Defence Blog
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