In July 2024 Romania placed a sizable order for South Korean K9 self-propelled howitzers worth $920 million. Under that deal the country will receive 54 K9 SPHs, an additional 36 K10 ammunition resupply vehicles, and a quantity of ammunition. The contract also includes localization of production in Romania.
New, clearer delivery timelines have now emerged, reports Defense Romania, which visited the Hanwha factory in South Korea. The visit apparently marked the start of production for the first batch under the Romanian contract welding of the first steel plates for the initial five K9s has begun at the plant in Changwon in southern Korea.
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In total, 18 howitzers will be produced in Korea and are scheduled for delivery during 2026. The remaining 36 vehicles will be manufactured in Romania, where Hanwha is building a plant in Petrești, about 50 km west of Bucharest. That factory is due to begin operations in spring 2027.
According to estimates, roughly 80% of the contract's value will remain in the Romanian economy. Hanwha also notes that its main Korean plant can produce up to 200 K9s per year, with capacity expandable to 240 units, so the Romanian localization is not driven by a production bottleneck in Korea. Its unlikely Romania will reach comparable assembly speeds domestically.
To date more than 2,400 K9s have been built; the system is a bestseller chosen by ten countries, six of them NATO members. The K9 is a classic tracked 155 mm/52-caliber self-propelled howitzer featuring a high degree of digitization and mechanization.
For Romania, the order answers a critical need to modernize its self-propelled artillery fleet, which currently consists of only about 40 aging 122 mm 2S1 Gvozdika howitzers and license-built Model 89 variants.
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