The Norwegian Defence Materiel Agency (NDMA) announced on 28 January that winter trials for the MBT programme have begun at the Rena camp in Østerdalen, with both companies deploying two tanks each to be evaluated for mobility and shooting performance. KMW has entered its latest Leopard 2A7 MBT. Its only competitor is Germany’s Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW), whose PzH-2000 system lost out against the Koreans in the SPH programme. Seoul no doubt hopes to ride on the momentum of its K9 Thunder win to help boost its prospects to supply Norway’s next-generation MBT, which will replace the army’s Leopard 2A4 platforms. The South Korean system had emerged victorious in a competitive tender which included the French CAESAR, German Panzerhaubitze 2000 (PzH-2000), and the Swiss RUAG M109 Krait upgrade. Once fully operationalised, the new SPH will replace the M109A3GNM systems currently in service with the Norwegian Army. The first batch of K9 Thunders arrived in Norway in late 2019. South Korea had earlier won a contract to deliver 24 Hanwha Land Systems 155 mm K9 Thunder self-propelled howitzers (SPHs) in December 2017 along with six K10 armoured ammunition resupply vehicles worth around US$215 million.

South korea main battle tank