Australia conducts first live fire of locally built AS9 Huntsman

The Australian Army conducted its first live fire of a locally built AS9 SPH at the Puckapunyal Training Area in Victoria. (Commonwealth of Australia)

The Australian Army has conducted its inaugural live fire of its locally built AS9 Huntsman 155 mm/52 calibre tracked self-propelled howitzer (SPH), the Department of Defence (DoD) in Canberra announced on 4 June.

The DoD said personnel from the Royal Australian Artillery's (RAA's) 4th Regiment conducted the live fire following the completion of a six-week training course at the School of Artillery in Puckapunyal, Victoria. The 4th Regiment is based at Lavarack Barracks in Townsville, Queensland.

“The AS9 Huntsman is a protected, mobile artillery system capable of delivering accurate fire at range under armour, designed to move, fire and relocate quickly to sustain fire support while reducing vulnerability,” the DoD said.

“The tracked platform allowed crews to fire once the gun came into action instead of going through a manual setup process required on the M777,” the DoD added. In service with the Australian Army, the AS9 Huntsman SPH will replace the service's BAE Systems M777 towed howitzer.

The DoD signed a contract worth AUD1 billion (USD713 million) in 2021 with Hanwha Aerospace's local subsidiary, Hanwha Defence Australia (HDA), to supply 30 AS9s and 15 AS10 armoured ammunition resupply vehicles (AARVs) under its Land 8116 Phase 1 programme.

Land 8116 Phase 1, also known as Protected Mobile Fires programme, is intended to strengthen the Australian Army's protected mobile fires capability and provide mobility, lethality, and protection to armoured vehicles and other ground forces.