Geelong is hearing the thump of industry again. In a low-slung complex on the city’s fringe, a new line of self-propelled howitzers is taking shape—machines born of a decade where artillery set the tempo of conflict and procurement set the pace of alliances. The platform winning orders from Europe to the Pacific is Korean, and its newest variant is being assembled by Australian hands in Victoria.
“Artillery isn’t about noise,” one trainer likes to say. “It’s about effects, timing, and the map.” The system now rolling into Australian metalwork is built to compress that timing and redraw that map in minutes.
A war of barrels and supply lines
If the 2010s were about counterinsurgency, the early 2020s put big guns back at the center. The return of large-scale fires—watched daily in open-source feeds and satellite imagery—reminded planners that steel, fuel, and tempo often beat flashier tech without deep logistics. In that contest of rate, reach, and replenishment, a Korean design emerged as the practical standard for armies that needed proven metal quickly and at scale.
Orders followed a simple logic: field what can move, shoot, and be resupplied under pressure. The K9 family—manufactured by Hanwha and adapted by multiple partners—fit that brief with a mix of mature engineering and upgrades ready for tomorrow’s threats. “It’s not just a gun,” an engineer quipped, “it’s a mobile production line for effects.”
Meet the gun: K9, reimagined as AS9
Australia’s variant, known as the AS9 Huntsman, takes the battle-tested K9 and layers in local requirements. It mounts a 155 mm/52-caliber cannon designed for long-range precision, pushing standard rounds past 40 km and specialized shells farther still. Its digital fire-control suite speeds tasking and calculation, while its chassis absorbs recoil and stabilizes quickly for rapid “shoot-and-scoot.”
Inside, the crew works in a protected, climate-controlled capsule with automation that trims workload and cuts exposure. Integrated sensors, secure radios, and Australian battle-network links mean the AS9 can hunt for targets, fire, move, and rearm before a counter-battery radar finishes its sweep.
The partner vehicle, the AS10 Armoured Ammunition Resupply, keeps the tempo high with automated transfers under armor. It shuttles shells and charges directly into the howitzer, minimizing time on a firing point and the human strain of heavy munitions.
Why Geelong, why now
Geelong has reinvented itself from car assembly lines to sovereign defense manufacturing. Hanwha’s Armoured Vehicle Centre of Excellence—on the city’s northern edge—anchors a supply chain of welders, machinists, electronics specialists, and advanced materials shops. The facility is designed for repeatable quality and throughput, with bays that can flex between howitzer and armoured vehicle work as demand shifts.
For Australia, the benefits are layered. Local assembly hardens readiness by shrinking overseas dependencies, creates skilled jobs, and builds a knowledge base that endures past a single contract. For allies, a southern-hemisphere production node adds resilience to a global network strained by wartime consumption.
“Speed matters,” a program manager noted. “Every day we compress in production is a day we gain in deterrence.”
What sets it apart on the range
- Long reach, fast cadence: high initial burst, sustained rate of fire, and multi-round impacts arriving within tight windows.
- Rapid displacement: fire, recover, and move before enemy sensors finish the math.
- Automated reloads: safer, faster, under-armor replenishment to keep guns in the fight.
- Digital backbone: networked command, resilient comms, and swift target-to-trigger loops.
- Upgrade path: power, protection, and software margins for future munitions and counter-drone tools.
From paddock to parade ground
The line in Geelong is tuned for consistent output, with inspection gates that catch issues before they reach the range. Australian crews will train alongside the manufacturing rhythm, feeding user feedback into incremental refinements. That loop—soldier to engineer, shop floor to firing point—is where reliability turns into confidence.
Expect to see the AS9 teamed with its AS10 resupply partner on Australian army exercises, validating tactics for dispersed batteries, rapid scoots, and counter-UAS defenses. The emphasis is on survivability as much as firepower: mobility, deception, and emissions discipline matter as much as barrel length.
The ripple effects
Building this system in Geelong is also a bet on allied interoperability. Shared parts, shared training, and similar tactics shorten the gap between political decisions and battlefield effects. It opens doors for Australian SMEs to design subassemblies, sensors, and smart software that can travel with the platform into other markets.
There’s a civic angle, too. A region once defined by shuttered factories is teaching a new generation to bend plate, route cables, and calibrate systems that serve a national mission. “It feels like making the future, piece by piece,” as one apprentice put it, “and knowing those pieces have to work.”
The past few years have shown that industrial depth is a form of armor. With the Huntsman line humming in Geelong, Australia is putting steel behind that lesson—and giving its gunners a tool built for the harsh arithmetic of modern fires.