Egyptian Ground Forces

Egypt buys 200 K9 155mm howitzers from South Korea

Egypt has signed a $1.7 billion deal with South Korea’s Hanwha Defence for the acquisition of K9 Thunder self-propelled howitzers, which will be mostly locally manufactured in Egypt.

The signing ceremony took place in Cairo on 1 February and was attended by senior Egyptian military and South Korean industry officials, including Mohamed Zaki, Egypt’s Minister of Defence, and Mohamed Ahmed Morsi, Minister of State for Military Production.

Around 200 artillery systems will be supplied along with support vehicles including the K10 ammunition resupply vehicle, Defense News reports.

South Korea’s Defence Acquisition Programme Administration (DAPA) and the Egyptian military announced the deal, but did not disclose the exact value or quantities involved – it is estimated the contract is worth around $1.7 billion.

The Egyptian sale is the largest export contract for the K9 Thunder. Most of the artillery systems and vehicles will be produced in Egypt by the state-run Factory 200 outside Cairo, while an initial batch will be delivered by Hanwha Defence.

Egypt has been eyeing the K9 since 2010 when a memorandum of understanding on defence cooperation was signed between Egypt and South Korea. Egypt has for years expressed interest in acquiring new self-propelled howitzers, most likely to replace its M109s (Egypt has more than 170 M109A5s in service). Amongst options it examined were the French Caesar, the K9, the Russian 2S35 Koalitsiya-SV, and Chinese PLZ-45. Around 2017, the Caesar was trialled in Egypt.

https://www.armyrecognition.com/defense_news_december_2021_global_security_army_industry/egypt_could_sign_soon_an_agreement_to_acquire_k9_155mm_howitzers_from_south_korea.html