Army wraps up 1st overseas tank, howitzer drills in Qatar

Korean K2 tanks take part in a field exercise at a training ground in Qatar, in this undated photo provided by the Army on Oct. 29. Yonhap

The Army said Tuesday it concluded its first overseas drills with tank and howitzer units in Qatar earlier this week, after it deployed some 100 troops to a desert training ground in the Middle Eastern country.

The live-fire and maneuver drills, which mobilized four K2 tanks and four K9A1 self-propelled howitzers, drew to a close Sunday after a two-week run at Qatar's Al Qalayel training center, according to the Army.

During the exercise period, the tanks and howitzers trained alongside Qatar's German-made Leopard 2A7 tanks and Panzerhaubitze 2000 howitzers, conducting various combined combat drills.

The Army said the K2 tanks showed off their live-fire capabilities by striking targets 5 kilometers away, beyond their maximum effective firing range of over 3 kilometers, at a hit rate of more than 80 percent.

After the field training exercise, the Army's K10 ammunition resupply vehicles demonstrated artillery shell resupplying operations for K9 howitzers to a group of Qatari military and government officials, it said.

Korea has recently sought closer defense industry ties with Qatar amid its push to become a major global arms exporter, signing a bilateral memorandum of understanding on defense cooperation in February. (Yonhap)