Page 36 - Australian Defence Magazine Sep-Oct 2022

36 DEFENCE BUSINESS HANWHA DEFENSE
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
SOUTH KOREA STEPS UP GLOBAL DEFENCE AMBITIONS
The Republic of Korea is stepping up its ambitions as a global defence exporter, led by its enormous industrial conglomerates (chaebols) Hanwha Group and Hyundai-Rotem.
ROYA GHODSI AND EWEN LEVICK | SEOUL AND CHANGWON
MOMENTUM has grown for South Korean industry following a landmark deal signed with Poland in July. Warsaw is dra- matically ramping up its defence spending following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In particular, the importance of artillery to the war (ADM understands that 155mm artillery rounds currently account for around 80 per cent of Ukraine’s logistics load) has not been lost on Poland, which has donated arms to Kyiv and now has plans to backfill that inventory with hun- dreds of new tanks, self-propelled artillery units and in- fantry fighting vehicles (IFVs). To do so, it has turned to South Korea.
The scale of the deal is extraordinary: 180 Polish Hyun- dai-Rotem K2 Black Panther main battle tanks acquired in June will be upgraded to K2PL standard, with an addi- tional 820 tanks to be built locally; 48 K9A1 Thunder self- propelled 155mm howitzers will be acquired from Hanwha (built in Korea) with an intention to acquire 642 more un- der a plan that will see localisation of the production line in due course; and the two countries will together develop the K3PL main battle tank, a new 155mm self-propelled howitzer and a heavy IFV potentially based on Hanwha’s AS21 Redback currently being offered for Australia’s Land 400 Phase 3 program.
Many of those capabilities will either be delivered or be-
gin production by 2026. The deal is a demonstration of South Korea’s immense production capability for armoured vehicles and self-propelled guns – but it is also a demon- stration of how Australia and South Korea are working to- gether on the global stage.
SPH AND IFVS
South Korea’s defence production capability is centred in the city of Changwon on the south coast, a sister city to Greater Geelong and (incidentally) a city modelled on Canberra. It is home to Hanwha Defense’s main produc- tion plants – Plant 1 and Plant 2 – which make howitzers, ammunition resupply vehicles, infantry fighting vehicles, armoured personnel carriers, armoured wheeled vehicles, and a range of air defence systems similar to HIMARS.
Of particular interest to Australia, of course, are the K9 Thunder self-propelled howitzers, a new version of which (the Huntsman) is being acquired for the ADF under Land 8116 (see page 84 for more on this program), and the Red- back IFV under consideration for Land 400 Phase 3.
The K9 self-propelled howitzer is perhaps Hanwha’s most
ABOVE: The K9 can shoot its first round within 30 seconds of becoming stationary
HANWHA DEFENSE