Hanwha breaks ground on howitzer plant in Australia

South Korea’s Hanwha Defense Co., the world’s top self-propelled howitzer producer, has kicked off the construction of its first overseas facility in Australia to manufacture artillery systems.

The groundbreaking ceremony on April 8 came after Hanwha was awarded a contract worth around $1 billion in December 2021 to supply its K9 self-propelled howitzers and armored ammunition resupply vehicles to the Australian Army by 2027.

The facility, dubbed H-ACE, will be completed by 2024 to become the first foreign production base for a South Korean defense company. 

H-ACE will be built on a 150,000-square-meter site near Avalon Airport. The base will be composed of a 32,000-square-meter factory, a performance test center, a shooting range and an R&D center.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, South Korea's Defense Acquisition Minister Kang Eun Ho and Hanwha Defense CEO Son Jae-il participated in the groundbreaking ceremony held in the city of Geelong, in the Australian state of Victoria.

Under the contract, Hanwha is to supply 30 howitzers, similar to tanks and 15 ammunition resupply vehicles. In Australia, they will be branded as the AS9 Huntsman and 15 AS10 armored resupply vehicles.

The deal marked Hanwha's first sale of the self-propelled artillery system and Australia's first major defense systems purchase from an Asian contractor.

Apart from the howitzer contract, Hanwha is vying for Australia’s $4.6 billion project to buy new infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs).

Hanwha's Redback armored vehicles are competing with Germany's Rheinmetall KF-41 Lynx to win the order, for which Australia is slated to choose the winner this year. 

Redback is a fifth-generation IFV, developed in cooperation with Israel, Australia and Canada. It features state-of-the-art technologies such as tech sensor systems, which allow the crew to see through the vehicle’s armor. 

Hanwha and Rheinmetall are the two shortlisted candidates for the IFV supply. Their military vehicles are being tested by the Australian government as part of a two-year risk mitigation activity.

Write to Ik-hwan Kim at lovepen@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article.