Hanwha eyes Norway, Sweden for rocket artillery sales

PARIS – Hanwha Aerospace sees opportunities to sell its K239 Chunmoo rocket artillery system to Norway and Sweden, with short delivery time and price giving it an edge over competitors, the company said at the Eurosatory defense show in Paris on Monday.

The South Korean defense firm is displaying its multiple rocket launch system in Europe for the first time in response to interest from several countries in the region in long-range rocket system. Hanwha faces competition from Elbit Systems’ PULS, as well as the GMARS MLRS presented by Rheinmetall and Lockheed Martin on Monday.

Meanwhile, French firms Safran and Thales are developing competing proposals in response to a French demand for a rocket system.

“Norway is one of the major markets we’re looking at, Sweden would maybe follow,” Junheun Lee, a Warsaw-based senior manager for business development at Hanwha, told Defense News. “They would want delivery before 2030, and we can definitely do that.

”Hanwha would be able to delivery each country a battalion-sized batch of 16 to 18 Chunmoo launchers by 2030, according to the company manager. Norway may make a decision by the end of the year or early next year, while Sweden would follow later, as the country hasn’t yet budgeted for buying a rocket artillery system.

The Netherlands, Denmark and Spain have bought the PULS. Germany has also said it plans to order the Israeli system, though Rheinmetall and Lockheed Marketing are targeting the German market with GMARS, an upgraded version of the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS,

Hanwha’s open architecture is another selling point in addition to delivery time and price, with countries able to use their own chassis for the launcher if they so desire, as has been the case with Poland and which might be the case for Nordic buyers, according to Junheun Lee. Poland has signed contracts to buy 288 units of the Homar-K, a Polish version of Hanwha’s MLRS.

Hanwha says its rocket artillery can fire munitions including a 239mm rocket with a range of 80 kilometers and a 280mm rocket that can reach targets 160 km away, as well as a 290mm ballistic missile with a maximum range of 290 km. The company plans to integrate 122mm unguided rockets for Poland.

The Korean company said on Friday it’s considering setting up a “user club” for the system to share experiences and best practices. The company isn’t facing any issues with component supplies, with 95% of the Chunmoo manufactured domestically in South Korea.