South Korea on Tuesday signed a contract to sell K9 self-propelled howitzers to Egypt in a deal worth over US$1.65 billion, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported on Wednesday.
Yonhap reported Seoul’s arms procurement agency as saying that this howitzers’ sale marks the artillery system’s first entry into the African market.
South Korean manufacturer Hanwha Defense signed an agreement with Egypt’s defense minstry for the largest K9 export deal in Cairo’s Artillery House military facility, capping off 10 years of intermittent talks.
The deal will see the production of K9s produced in Egypt and technology transfer affording to the to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA).
The DAPA did not elaborate on details such as when the K9 howitzers will be supplied to Egypt and at what quantity.
The deal makes Egypt the eighth foreign country to adopt the K9, joining Turkey, Poland, India, Norway, Finland, Estonia, and Australia.
“It is an achievement made through a combination of technological cooperation, collaboration in terms of localized production and pan-government support, which goes beyond just the transactional relationship between the two nations,” DAPA chief Kang Eun-ho was quoted as saying.
“The signing followed last month’s summit between President Moon Jae-in and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo, which the DAPA said helped create much-needed momentum for the conclusion of the deal,” according to Yonhap.
The report added that “On the margins of the agreement, the DAPA and Egypt’s defense ministry also signed a separate memorandum of understanding on bilateral cooperation in defense research and development.”
