Nammo has secured an agreement to develop new and modern 120mm ammunition for Hyundai Rotem Companies’ K2 Black Panther main battle tank (MBT). The first test shots have already been fired. The agreement between the two companies has an initial value of $5 million for the Research and development (R&D) part, and likely more than $100 million if Nammo ends up producing and delivering 120mm ammunition to K2 users. Poland recently signed a contract to procure close to two hundred K2 tanks, in a deal where HRC will deliver a total of 1000 K2 Main Battle Tanks with successive contracts. Norway is currently in the final stage of choosing a new Main Battle Tank for its Army – the K2 is one of two candidates.
“The agreement between the two companies will further prepare the K2 MBT for the European market. The K2 today is fully interoperable with NATO ammunition standards and the cooperation with Nammo will further strengthen the security of supply both for Norway and other K2 users in Europe,” says Euiseong Lee, Vice President of HRC.
“This is a major milestone for Nammo. The agreement with Hyundai Rotem Company (HRC) enables us to integrate and further develop our modern ammunition portfolio for the K2. This means more powerful ammunition for NATO countries using the K2, including Norway”, says Audun Dotseth, Vice President Large Caliber Systems at Nammo.
Initially, Nammo will start the work on integrating its current 120mm ammunition to ensure a high safety standard as well as perfect compatibility with the K2 MBT.In the mid- to long term, Nammo together with HRC also expects to finalize the development of a programmable fuze. This will enable the K2 MBT to use rounds with different scenario dependent modes, with airburst as one such option. The first successful test shots with the new airburst ammunition were fired at Rena firing range during last Winter’s test and trials in Norway. To facilitate further development and testing procedures, an identical gun with the one used by the K2 MBT, delivered by Hyundai Wia, will be permanently set up by HRC at Nammo’s Raufoss test center.
The K2 Black Panther is a next-generation South Korean main battle tank designed by the Agency for Defense Development and manufactured by Hyundai Rotem. The K2 Black Panther combines an auto-loaded 120 mm 55-caliber smoothbore gun, advanced composite armor, extremely high frequency pulse-doppler radar, along with soft and hard-kill active protection systems. The K2NO Black Panther being offered for the Norwegian Army by the South Korean company Hyundai Rotem. So far, it has already selected two possible contenders, after having evaluated up to nine options, the last of which were to acquire new platforms or upgrade the current fleet of Leopard 2A4 tanks currently operated by the Norwegian army has.
