The K9 Thunder is a South Korean self-propelled 155 mm howitzer developed by Samsung Techwin for the Republic of Korea Armed Forces. It was developed to supplement and then replace the K55 self-propelled howitzers in South Korean service. K9 howitzers operate in groups with the K10 automatic ammunition resupply vehicle. Samsung Techwin sold the 300 K9 subsystems to Turkey. The domestic Turkish self-propelled howitzer was named as T-155 Firtina. In September 2015, Larsen and Toubro emerged as the finalist for a US$800million contract to supply 100 self-propelled howitzers to the Indian Army. The vehicle is the K9 VAJRA-T, a variant of the K9 specially designed for operation in the desert areas bordering Pakistan. 120 K9 chassis will be produced as part of the Polish Army AHS Krab program. In February 2017, the Finnish Ministry of Defence announced that Finland will acquire 48 used K9s over a period of seven years starting in 2018, with conscript training on the equipment commencing in 2019.
