K-9 Thunder Most Deadly than M109 Paladin? || South Korea's Giant Artillery Gun

In December 2017, Norway announced it would purchase twenty-four K9 Thunder self-propelled howitzers from South Korean firm Hanhwa for $215 million, with an option for up to twenty-four more in the future. The K9 edged out an upgraded M109 howitzer offered by the Swiss firm RUAG and the German Panzerhaubitze 2000, which has a similar main gun and performance profile, but a slightly faster rapid-fire rate compared to the K9. However, the PzH 2000 is considerably more expensive.
This marks just the latest success of the South Korean howitzer system, which is already serving with Turkey and will soon enter service with three other NATO countries, as well as India and Finland. South Korea itself will have more than 1,200 of these guns deployed by 2019, to face down their intimidating North Korean counterparts along the mountainous demilitarized zones that separate the two states.

[@danjf1]

I saw the Paladin "in action" at a test range some years ago and loved what it could do. Now the K9 looks to be a very capable sph on many fronts - it looks like Poland will buy a decent number of them, as well as other NATO countries. I am hopeful they will make their way into Ukraine to end this terrorist act on a whole country en masse.

[@wonkyu1qlee66]

M109 is just too old…

[@danjf1]

I love the Paladin but I have to agree