Son Jae-il, CEO of Hanwha Land Systems, shakes hands with Mette Elin Sørfonden, head of Norway`s defense material agency, after signing contract.
Hanwha Land Systems, the defense unit of South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group, bagged a 245.2 billion won ($227.1 million) order to supply self-propelled howitzers and ammunition resupply vehicles to Norway.
The Korean company said on Thursday it signed an agreement with the Norwegian defense ministry to deliver 24 K9 Thunder howitzers and six K10 ammunition resupply vehicles by 2020.
The K9 Thunder is a self-propelled howitzer with a maximum firing range of 40 kilometers, jointly developed by Hanwha Land Systems and the Korean Agency for Defense Development in 1998. The artillery system entered service for the Republic of Korea Armed Forces in 2000.
“The fact that we won the deal over European rivals demonstrates the global competitiveness of our K9 self-propelled howitzers,” said Son Jae-il, chief executive of Hanwha Land Systems. “We will step up our marketing efforts to win a similar order from Estonia.”
This marks the company’s third K9 order for this year - 48 units from Finland and 100 units from India - in value of $720 million.
Since its first shipment of 280 K9 howitzers to Turkey in 2001, Korea has sold over 500 K9 units to earn 1.6 trillion won, making it the single largest export item in the ground weapons category.
By Moon Ji-woong and Kim Hyo-jin
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