Hanwha Aerospace signed a deal with Spanish defense company Indra Sistemas to export K9 self-propelled howitzers, according to a regulatory filing on Monday.
The Korean defense company did not disclose contract value or the delivery timeline of the contract, citing confidentiality agreements with Indra. The K9 exporter said additional filings will be made public at a future date when conditions of disclosure are met.
Payment terms were partly disclosed. Hanwha Aerospace receives 20 percent of the contract value as an initial payment following signature, plus a further 5 percent by Dec. 31, securing a quarter of the total within the year. The company said the contract period and value may change as the program proceeds.
Monday's filing follows a supply contract, disclosed in a July 27 filing, that identified neither the buyer nor the goods, citing a confidentiality request from the counterparty. The defense industry widely read that earlier filing as tied to the Spanish program.
Spain's tracked artillery program is the largest single opening left in Europe for the K9. Spain's army still fires M109 howitzers, U.S.-designed guns in service since the 1970s. To replace them, the Defense Ministry in December awarded a tracked-artillery program worth 4.55 billion euros($5.27 billion), including tax, to a consortium of Indra and Escribano Mechanical & Engineering.
In March, Hanwha and Indra signed a binding memorandum in Madrid, attended by Hanwha chief executive Son Jae-il and Indra chairman Ángel Escribano, making the K9 the base of Spain's next howitzer. The program covers 128 tracked guns for the Army and Marines, plus ammunition resupply, recovery and command-and-control vehicles.
Indra will reportedly design, develop and build the vehicles at its plant in Gijón, in northern Spain. Production is to be phased, with an initial short series arriving from Korea while Indra engineers train there, before shifting to Spanish manufacturing with a rising share of Spanish-made components.
The K9 Mobile Howitzer, or K9MH, undergoes a driving test in an undated photo.HANWHA AEROSPACE
The deal also carries geographic weight: it closes the last major regional gap in Hanwha Aerospace's European expansion.
Korea was the second-largest supplier of major arms to European members of NATO in 2021 to 2025, accounting for 8.6 percent of their imports and trailing only the United States, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's March 2026 fact sheet.
The K9 entered northern Europe a decade ago through Norway, Finland and Estonia, and central and eastern Europe through Poland, which placed the largest K9 order anywhere. In Romania, Hanwha Aerospace broke ground in February on its first European production plant, where 36 of the 54 howitzers ordered by Bucharest are to be built with up to 80 percent local content.
Hanwha Aerospace's contract with Indra also comes on the heels of its contract with the U.S. Army, which was announced on Aug. 19. Hanwha Aerospace will deliver six K9MH units, a wheeled version of the K9 howitzer, with an option for a further 12. The Korean howitzer exporter is reportedly moving to establish a U.S. production base for the K9 artillery system in Alabama.
