South Korea's Hanwha Aerospace displays a full-sized K9 self-propelled howitzer at IDEX 2025. (Breaking Defense)
BEIRUT — South Korean defense giant Hanwha has signed an agreement to collaborate with Emirati firm Generation 5 Holding with plans to jointly manufacture K9 155mm self propelled Howitzers in the United Arab Emirates to serve the Middle East market.
“Under the agreement, Generation 5 Holding will support local production and market access for the K9,” Hanwha said in a statement Friday on the sidelines of Eurosatory defense expo in Paris.
The South Korean firm said the agreement is “part of Hanwha Aerospace’s strategy to strengthen its position in the Middle East, where it is pursuing local production, maintenance and technology partnerships as a route to regional customers. In-country manufacture and lifecycle support are intended to build local industrial capability and to provide support closer to where the systems operate.”
K-9 Thunder is a 155 mm self propelled Howitzer, which was contracted by Egypt in 2022 in a deal worth $1.7 billion. Hanwha offered Egypt a coproduction arrangement where subsystems were produced in Egypt’s Factory 200.
