Following the news that Australia has chosen Hanwha Defense’s K9 (Australian designation AS9) for their new self-propelled howitzer;

Madeline Wild, Associate Defense Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, comments:

“Australia’s decision to purchase 30 AS9 for its army should help Team Thunder (led by Hanwha Defense), in its bid, to secure the UK’s Mobile Fires Platform contract.  Team Thunder announced its intention to put forward a domestically produced version of the K9 when requests for proposals are released by the UK MoD in 2022.

“The Mobile Fires Program is the UK’s project to acquire a new self-propelled artillery system for the British Army, replacing its aging AS90 howitzers. Besides the Hanwha led Team Thunder consortium, other candidates that may be expected to bid for the Mobile Fires Program contract include BAE’s Archer, KMW’s RCH155 and PzH2000.

“The K9 is currently in use with seven other nations and with the recent addition of Australia, Hanwha hopes that by building the 30 AS9 domestically, they will be able to engage with the Five Eyes intelligence community. If the UK were to procure the K9, it would build on earlier AUKUS agreement to provide a unified deterrent to a potentially aggressive China. However, working with South Korea would not be new for the MOD as the RFA’s Tide-class tankers were built by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME).”