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K9 howitzer for export to Poland released
By Jun Ji-hye
Samsung Techwin rolled out the first K-9 self-propelled howitzer chassis that it will export to Poland, Friday.
The company and the Defense Agency for Technology and Quality held a ceremony to commemorate the event in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province.
Samsung Techwin signed a deal with the Poland’s state-run defense contractor Huta Stalowa Wola (HSW) in December to sell 120 of the locally developed howitzer chasses.
With the release of the first, the company will directly supply 24 KP chasses by 2017. From 2018, the firm will transfer components and technology to HSW, so it can produce the remaining 96 there.
The Samsung Techwin expects the export, whose total value is estimated at about $310 million, to pave the way for more sales in Europe.
The company developed the 155-millimeter howitzer for the nation’s armed forces in 1998 to replace K-55 howitzers. Equipped with state-of-the-art firing and mobility systems, the K-9 has a maximum range of some 40 kilometers at a maximum speed of 67 kph.
In 2011, Samsung Techwin sold 350 K-9 howitzers to Turkey on a technology transfer basis, which called for the firm to provide the parts and technology.
Regarded as one of the masterpiece weapons produced by South Korea, the K-9 self-propelled howitzer played a key role in countering North Korea’s artillery shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, near the Northern Limit Line (NLL), on Nov. 23, 2010, that killed two Marines and two civilians.
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