Hanwha selects Kongsberg for Australia's ‘Huntsman' project

Hanwha Defense Australia (HDA) has announced a partnership with Kongsberg Defence Australia (KDA) in support of its bid to supply the Australian Army with K9 155 mm self-propelled howitzers (SPHs) and 15 K10 armoured ammunition resupply vehicles (AARVs).

HDA said on 13 November that KDA will be responsible for integrating command, control, communications, and computing (C4) capability into the two platforms – to be known in Australia as the ‘Huntsman’ family of vehicles – which are expected to be acquired through the Protected Mobile Fires programme under Project Land 8116 Phase 1.

In early September HDA, which is the local subsidiary of South Korea’s Hanwha Defense, was named by the Australian government as preferred supplier in the programme. HDA was issued with a request for tender (RFT) later that month.

HDA said its selection of Kongsberg to supply C4 integration was a “natural choice”, given that the Norwegian-headquartered company provides the digital architecture and fire-control system for Hanwha Defense’s K9 and K10 platforms.

Hanwha Defense and Kongsberg have previously partnered on projects to supply K9 and K10 platforms to Norway and K9 SPHs to Finland and Estonia.