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The original was posted on /r/worldnews by /u/self-fix on 2024-06-07 20:06:12+00:00.
A South Korean weapons company once seen as a dinosaur is now churning out howitzers twice as fast as its Western competitors
Submitted 2 years ago by bot@lemmit.online [bot] to worldnews@lemmit.online
autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] 2 years ago
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A South Korean weapons manufacturer that traditionally specialized in older, less advanced armaments is seizing on demand for 155mm howitzers by producing them faster than the West.
Bloomberg reported that Hanwha’s advantage comes from a streamlined production process that it’s kept running as big Western defense contractors turned to more advanced weaponry years ago.
That class of weapon “is the stuff that Lockheed Martin and Boeing don’t do,” Yoon Sukjoon, a senior fellow at the Korea Institute for Military Affairs, told the outlet.
Its customers include Poland, which officiated an order for 679 of the K9 howitzers in July 2022, and Romania, which was reported in April to be looking into its first defense contract with South Korea for $725 million.
That growth underscores a worldwide push to revitalize conventional arms manufacturing as global tensions worsen and major militaries send their inventory to Kyiv.
South Korea’s defense contractors have emerged as significant industry players, making the country the world’s 10th biggest arms exporter, per the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
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