Exclusive: South Korea’s Hanwha Aerospace Prepares Future Autonomous Howitzer K9A3 Offering 80 km Range.

South Korean defense company Hanwha Aerospace released the first depiction of its latest advancement in artillery technology with the unveiling of the K9A3 self-propelled howitzer, an evolution of the widely fielded K9 Thunder family. Presented via an official video on April 28, 2025, the K9A3 represents a decisive step forward, introducing autonomous and unmanned operational capabilities that address emerging requirements for survivability, lethality, and operational tempo in multi-domain operations.
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Artist’s rendering of Hanwha Aerospace’s K9A3 next-generation self-propelled howitzer concept, featuring autonomous mobility and a new 58-caliber 155mm gun with a maximum firing range of 80 km. (Picture source: Hanwha Aerospace video footage)

Designed with full manned and unmanned functionality, the K9A3 allows commanders to deploy it in high-risk environments without direct personnel exposure. The new artillery vehicle can conduct all mobility and firing operations either remotely or in a fully autonomous mode. This capability is increasingly essential for modern conflict scenarios where adversaries possess advanced counter-battery capabilities, loitering munitions, and sophisticated surveillance assets.

Central to the K9A3’s enhanced capabilities is the integration of a 58-caliber 155mm gun, a significant upgrade over the current 52-caliber systems. The longer barrel dramatically extends effective fire support ranges, achieving maximum distances up to 80 kilometers when paired with precision long-range projectiles. This enables deep fires capability, allowing artillery units to engage strategic targets beyond the forward edge of battle area (FEBA) while minimizing exposure to enemy sensors and fires.

Beyond its primary armament, the K9A3 turret is fitted with a remotely operated weapon station armed with a 12.7mm heavy machine gun, providing organic self-defense against air threats, drones, and close assault forces. Visual assessments from the release materials suggest the vehicle features enhanced armor protection, likely incorporating applique modules or integrated composite armor to counter threats from anti-tank guided missiles, loitering munitions, and rotary-wing platforms. Such survivability enhancements are critical as artillery units increasingly become primary targets in contested environments.

From a tactical and operational perspective, autonomous artillery platforms like the K9A3 redefine employment concepts. They enable decentralized operations with highly mobile, dispersed batteries that can exploit terrain, minimize signature, and rapidly deliver precision fires. Autonomous operation allows for reduced crew footprints, mitigating casualties and enabling sustained operations under conditions of heavy attrition or communications degradation. Critically, the K9A3’s automation enhances its ability to execute "shoot-and-scoot" tactics — a battlefield maneuver in which an artillery unit fires on a target and immediately relocates to a new firing position before the enemy can detect and return fire. This tactic dramatically reduces vulnerability to counter-battery strikes, UAV reconnaissance, and precision-guided munitions, ensuring that artillery remains survivable even under persistent enemy observation.

In combined arms operations, the K9A3's integration with unmanned aerial systems (UAS), unmanned ground vehicles (UGV), and AI-enabled C4ISR networks provides a force-multiplier effect. Intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) assets can conduct deep sensor coverage, detecting enemy formations, artillery, and logistics nodes. Upon detection, the K9A3 can execute responsive fires without traditional delays, closing the sensor-to-shooter loop to seconds rather than minutes. This capability is particularly vital in high-intensity peer conflicts, where speed and massed precision fires can achieve localized overmatch and disrupt enemy maneuver.

Additionally, the K9A3 offers significant benefits in expeditionary operations and distributed lethality concepts. Its autonomous mobility allows for persistent, long-duration deployments with reduced logistical and personnel support, enhancing operational endurance and reducing vulnerability to asymmetric threats. In environments where GPS denial, electronic warfare, and contested communications are expected, the K9A3’s autonomous systems can maintain operational effectiveness without continuous human input, a key enabler for future multi-domain battlefields.

Hanwha Aerospace’s announcement positions the K9A3 not just as an evolutionary product improvement, but as a platform designed for the operational realities of the next decades. It leverages automation, extended-range fires, and survivability enhancements to meet emerging doctrinal and operational needs. As armed forces worldwide seek to modernize their indirect fire capabilities against increasingly capable threats, the K9A3 is expected to generate significant interest among both current K9 users and new markets aiming to achieve overmatch in fires capabilities.

The K9 Thunder howitzer family remains the benchmark for 155mm tracked artillery systems, with adoption by numerous armies including South Korea, Australia, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Poland, Egypt, and India. The K9A3 cements Hanwha’s commitment to maintaining technological superiority, offering a system well-suited for the joint, highly dispersed, high-tempo operations anticipated in future conflicts.