AUSA 2025: Hanwha advances K9 MH Wheeled Howitzer as US Army reassesses artillery.

Hanwha Aerospace USA is showing a wheeled K9 MH Mobile Howitzer in Washington during AUSA 2025, pairing a 155mm fully automatic turret with an 8x8 truck. The pitch aligns with the Army’s post-ERCA path to a common 155mm gun and faster fielding, with company briefings pointing to U.S. testing in early 2026.

Hanwha Aerospace USA is presenting a demonstrator of its K9 MH Mobile Howitzer at the AUSA 2025 annual meeting in Washington, positioning the 155mm, 52 caliber automatic turret on a heavy 8x8 truck as a truck-agnostic, quick-to-deploy option for U.S. formations. Company materials and media briefings say the wheeled variant, now in production, is aimed at Army evaluation with trials planned in early 2026, while the AUSA display underscores Hanwha’s push to localize U.S. content across guns, charges, and resupply. The showing comes as the Army reorients artillery modernization after discontinuing the ERCA 58 caliber prototype in 2024 and exploring common gun approaches and longer-range munitions.
Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link

Hanwha Aerospace’s K9A2 MH wheeled 155 mm howitzer mock-up on display at AUSA 2025 in Washington, featuring an automatic turret with a 52-caliber gun; US Army trials are planned for early 2026.(Picture source: Army Recognition)

In its configuration, the wheeled version keeps the full K9A2 turret architecture and retains fully automatic loading. The 52 caliber gun is common to the K9A1 and K9A2. Mounting uses an adapter on an 8x8 truck with a stabilizing ring to preserve accuracy during fire. Set up is under thirty seconds. The vehicle carries thirty 155 mm rounds and one hundred ninety-two charges, operates with a reduced crew of two to three, delivers up to nine rounds per minute, and can fire a three round burst in fifteen seconds. Hanwha describes a truck agnostic design with platforms such as the Tatra 8157 or Mack Defense among the options, which broadens industrial pathways.

There is already a set of options. First, a 58 caliber barrel about nine meters long aims for ranges beyond seventy kilometers with guided or base bleed munitions. Second, pairing with a wheeled resupply vehicle derived from the K10 ARV forms a coherent logistics chain for ammunition and charges. Third, continuity in software and logistics with the K9 family reduces integration work for users familiar with this base.

The value of a wheeled gun lies in operational mobility and cost of ownership on extensive road networks while keeping a high rate of fire with a small crew. The system deploys quickly, fires, then displaces, and integrates with existing command chains. The solution lowers stabilizing spades before firing and does not shoot on the move, unlike the KNDS RCH 155. For coordinated fire missions with short timelines, the combination of autoloading sustained cadence and resupply by a wheeled K10 supports shoot and scoot with a straightforward logistics profile. Sharing the same caliber, modular charge logic, and a common turret across tracked and wheeled versions lowers training and maintenance demands, which matters when units shift between training areas and deployments.

The US context is central. The end of ERCA left open the question of extended ranges and barrel wear under sustained fire. Hanwha proposes a response through metallurgy on the 58 caliber solution and optimization of charges while keeping the 52 caliber option already proven to about fifty kilometers with the M982A1 Excalibur round. With trials planned for early 2026, the equation becomes a concrete test a known architecture already exported in a tracked form, transferred to an 8x8 with expected gains in availability and sustainment. The Common Gun System logic, which aligns wheeled and tracked solutions, supports a pursuit of scale effects and standardization.

Competition remains intense. In the wheeled segment, the K9A2 Mobile Howitzer stands alongside European and Israeli options, KNDS RCH 155, CAESAr Mk II, ATMOS 2000, and the Rheinmetall HX3 concept. Each reflects different technical choices firing on the move for some, ground stabilization for others, which link back to national doctrine. Hanwha, for its part, emphasizes a globalized logistics base, nearly two thousand K9 units produced or on order by early 2024 across ten countries, and a US strategy focused on industrial localization and rising US content modular 155 mm charges, solid rocket motors, propellants, with targeted investments in naval and land capacity in the United States.

The presence of this system at AUSA 2025 signals two converging trends that drive across NATO forces to extend artillery range and the intent to secure local supply chains. If the US Army validates even a partial integration, two effects follow greater interoperability with current K9 users in Europe and the Indo Pacific, and a signal in favor of modular wheeled architectures to handle firing cadences in high-intensity conflict. In an environment where counter battery threats force dispersed postures and swift resupply cycles, the ability of a manufacturer to deliver the gun, the resupply vehicle, and a common logistics base becomes a collective security issue. The constructor targets this segment and, as a result, controls the spread of a shared standard among US partners and allies.

Written By Erwan Halna du Fretay - Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group

Erwan Halna du Fretay is a graduate of a Master’s degree in International Relations and has experience in the study of conflicts and global arms transfers. His research interests lie in security and strategic studies, particularly the dynamics of the defense industry, the evolution of military technologies, and the strategic transformation of armed forces.