Hanwha Defense USA plans to offer its K9 155mm self-propelled howitzer for the Army’s new effort to get after extending the range of its cannon artillery, with the company’s leader citing the program as a key opportunity to establish its position as a lead U.S. land systems provider.
John Kelly, CEO of the the U.S.-based subsidiary of South Korea’s Hanwha, on Monday detailed the company’s 10-year plan to become a U.S. land systems prime contractor, noting
its interest in building a new manufacturing facility and its pursuit with Anduril of the Army’s Small Multipurpose Equipment Transport (SMET) Inc. II ground robot competition.
“As we project 10 years forward…with companies like GD Land Systems [GD], BAE Systems, we think we very much can compete on a level with them, certainly on the ground systems,” Kelly told reporters during a briefing.
“We certainly have the portfolio to do it,” Kelly said. “To do it, [though], I need to have a facility. It’s going to need to be a sizable facility. It’s going to need to have some agility and flexibility to be able to grow.”
Kelly pointed to Hanwha’s new combat vehicle center in Australia, where it will build Redback Infantry Fighting Vehicles and K9 howitzers, as a model that it could replicate for potential future U.S. work.
“For us, it’s all about localization. Obviously, we’re not going to be very successful if we just export all this from Korea. The model we’ve used and the model that’s been successful for us…is very much about what we can do in terms of bringing that capability into country. And it’s not just jobs and technology, we’ll also build facilities,” Kelly said. “We want to build a facility. We want to basically build a consortium for a supply chain that we can work with. And then, obviously, we can look to re-export to other markets from here.”
A major initial effort in Hanwha Defense USA’s 10-year plan could be the Army’s artillery modernization push, with the company planning to demo its K9 platform as a potential offering for the Army’s next-generation howitzer initiative.
“Certainly, we see K9 as a hugely capable vehicle that can meet many, most of the vehicle requirements. It’s the most prolific self-propelled howitzer out there. We’ve got over 1,700 in service now with 10 countries. And I think that’ll be up to nearly 3,000 by the time we’ve delivered all the orders we’ve got on that. So we’re getting a huge amount of user feedback from those fieldings as well. So we think it’s obviously a very strong candidate. We’re very excited about it,” Kelly told reporters.
The Army earlier this year announced it ended development of the Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) future howitzer system and will be pivoting to a new approach that will look to consider industry’s more mature, existing capabilities, with plans to hold demonstrations this summer (Defense Daily, March 12).
“[We want] to understand what’s available today from both domestic and foreign sources. That would set conditions for potentially a competition in FY ‘25 that would lead to production after that,” Army Acquisition Chief Doug Bush told reporters in early May.
Kelly said Hanwha Defense USA replied to the Army’s Request for Information detailing K9 as a potential solution for its post-ERCA effort, noting a demo this summer could occur at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona or in South Korea.
Hanwha Defense USA previously demonstrated K9 at Yuma in September 2022, where it fired a “whole range” of munitions, Kelly noted, with this summer’s event likely to include showcasing the system with both U.S. and Korean munitions.
“[The Army] wants to make use of a commercial off-the-shelf system that has maturity and reliability. Obviously with the amount [of K9s] we have in service, we believe, certainly, we have that. We’re already in service with a number of NATO nations, so interoperability is easy with [Joint Ballistic] MoU compliance. We can fire really any munitions that are JBMOU compliant,” Kelly said.
Current customers for the K9 include South Korea, Australia, Norway, Finland, Estonia, India, Turkey, Egypt and Poland, with Romania also selecting the system earlier this year.
A BAE Systems official told Defense Daily in late March the company was interested in pursuing the Army’s post-ERCA effort, and may look to offer capabilities such as the M109-52 self-propelled howitzer that utilizes Rheinmetall’s L52 155mm, 52-caliber cannon or the Archer mobile artillery system, if the Army goes in a wheeled howitzer direction (Defense Daily, April 2).
Hanwha Defense USA and Anduril announced in February they had partnered to offer a “modified, autonomy-ready” uncrewed ground vehicle based on the South Korean defense firm’s Arion-SMET platform for the Army’s SMET Inc. II competition, and noted their team on the bid also includes Clarksburg, Maryland-based Forterra’s AutoDrive vehicle autonomy solution (Defense Daily, Feb. 29).
If selected for SMET Inc. II, Kelly said Hanwha would plan to build the required eight prototypes in South Korea while the company is discussing with Anduril how it would approach the potential production contract in the future for around 2,000 ground robots and building those in the U.S.
“So we’re still working it out, but the answer is it will be in the U.S.” Kelly said.
SMET Inc. II is the Army’s effort to field the next version of its equipment-carrying ground robot, with plans to pursue new multi-mission payloads for the platform.
GD Land Systems, which has been building the current version of SMET since 2020, confirmed in early March it submitted a bid for Inc. II prototype competition (Defense Daily, March 5).
Kelly said Hanwha Defense USA is still thinking through where in the U.S. it would look to set up a new manufacturing facility, noting there’s a scenario where there’s one location for potential SMET Inc. II production and a separate Hanwha facility for artillery system work.
“What has the best state benefit? What has the capable workforce? Which Congress representatives are necessarily on the right committees that could be advantageous to all of that equation? Actually, when you start mapping it out, it gets quite complicated,” Kelly said. “So we’re working through those options at the moment. But I guess it’s a good problem to have, I guess.”
The company is also eyeing merger and acquisition opportunities to further bolster its position in the U.S. land systems market, according to Kelly.
“An M&A buys you instant credibility. It buys you a U.S. workforce and some of the technology that’s already there.”