Indra teams up with Hanwha for Spain’s $5.3 billion artillery order

PARIS — Spain’s Indra teamed up with South Korea’s Hanwha Aerospace to fill a Spanish order for tracked self-propelled artillery with a budget of €4.55 billion (U.S. $5.3 billion).

Indra signed a binding agreement with Hanwha to produce 280 tracked vehicles for the Spanish Armed Forces based on the Korean company’s K9 155mm self-propelled howitzer, the Spanish company said Tuesday. The program will include 128 tracked artillery vehicles and 120 ammunition resupply vehicles, as well recovery vehicles and command-and-control units.

Hanwha’s K9 self-propelled artillery gun has been a major export success in Europe, helping South Korea become the second-biggest arms supplier to European NATO members, behind the United States. European K9 customers in recent years included Norway, Romania and Poland, with Hanwha typically willing to cooperate with local defense industries to win deals.

“The alliance between two major global defense leaders, Indra and Hanwha, enables us to offer the Spanish Armed Forces real sovereignty and autonomy throughout the life cycle of a new family of land platforms that did not exist until now,” Indra Chairman Ángel Escribano said in a statement.

Indra said the deal is of “enormous strategic relevance” for Spain due to the high level of associated technology transfer, putting the country among those in Europe with their own capacity to design and manufacture tracked land platforms.

The project will require an investment of €130 million to equip Indra’s plant in Gijón, Spain, with new industrial capabilities and advanced machinery, as well as set up an additional integration plant in the city, according to Indra.

Based on the K9 family of vehicles, Indra will design and manufacture the hulls for the vehicles in Spain, and provide the mission system, battlefield management system and communications. The Spanish firm said it will have design authority over the hull.

Artillery has been a priority area of investment for Europe, as Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing war prompted a reassessment of the need for mass and firepower on the battlefield. Ukraine has also become a test bed for integration of artillery with drones for targeting, even as unmanned aerial vehicles have emerged as one of the main threats to howitzers and their crews.

European countries spent more than $15 billion on rocket and tube artillery between May 2022 and July 2024, led by Poland, according to the latest Military Balance report from the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

In addition to the tracked howitzer purchase, Spain has also budgeted €2.9 billion for wheeled self-propelled artillery, as part of its defense modernization and capacity plan.

Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.

巴黎——西班牙的Indra公司与韩国的韩华航空航天公司合作，完成了西班牙价值45.5亿欧元（53亿美元）的履带式自行火炮订单。

西班牙公司Indra周二宣布，已与韩华公司签署具有约束力的协议，将基于韩华K9型155毫米自行榴弹炮，为西班牙武装部队生产280辆履带式车辆。该项目将包括128辆履带式火炮、120辆弹药补给车，以及抢修车和指挥控制单元。

韩华的K9自行火炮在欧洲取得了巨大的出口成功，帮助韩国成为仅次于美国的欧洲北约成员国第二大武器供应国。近年来，K9的欧洲客户包括挪威、罗马尼亚和波兰，韩华通常愿意与当地国防工业合作以达成交易。

“英德拉和韩华这两家全球主要防务领导者之间的联盟，使我们能够为西班牙武装部队提供真正的自主权和全生命周期的新型陆地平台，而这在以前是不存在的，”英德拉董事长安赫尔·埃斯克里瓦诺在一份声明中表示。

Indra表示，由于相关的技术转让水平很高，这笔交易对西班牙具有“巨大的战略意义”，使西班牙跻身欧洲拥有自主设计和制造履带式陆地平台能力的国家之列。

据 Indra 公司称，该项目将需要投资 1.3 亿欧元，为 Indra 位于西班牙希洪的工厂配备新的工业能力和先进的机械设备，并​​在该市建立一个额外的集成工厂。

基于K9系列车辆，Indra公司将在西班牙设计和制造车辆车体，并提供任务系统、战场管理系统和通信系统。这家西班牙公司表示，它将拥有车体的设计权。

火炮一直是欧洲优先投资领域，因为俄罗斯2022年入侵乌克兰及其引发的战争促使人们重新评估战场上火力规模和强度的需求。乌克兰也成为了火炮与无人机联合瞄准的试验场，尽管无人机已成为榴弹炮及其炮组人员面临的主要威胁之一。

根据国际战略研究所最新发布的《军事平衡》报告，2022 年 5 月至 2024 年 7 月期间，欧洲国家在火箭炮和管式火炮上的支出超过 150 亿美元，其中波兰的支出最多。

除了购买履带式榴弹炮外，西班牙还在其国防现代化和能力建设计划中拨款 29 亿欧元用于购买轮式自行火炮。

鲁迪·鲁伊滕贝格是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者。他的职业生涯始于彭博新闻社，拥有报道科技、大宗商品市场和政治方面的经验。