Norwegian Army picks Hanwha Techwin K9 and RUAG upgraded M109 for down select...panzerhaubitze 2000 rejected!

Thanks to Bjørnar for the link!

via TU.NO

Korean K9 Thunder and Swiss, upgraded M109.
It is these two guns that stands between when the Norwegian military planned to acquire 24 new artillery pieces and put them to use by 2020.
The Korean candidate has an advantage, and may be the preferred artillery system in the Nordic region.
Decisive winter test
After a market survey (RFI) asked defense last June about offers from four artillery manufacturers .
The candidates were then put to the test in three weeks in January this year on Regionfelt eastern Norway by Rena.
In the very thorough and well-documented tests, should the four shoot towers with 155 mm cannons demonstrate its ability to move forward and to shoot under Norwegian winter conditions.
Key requirements for the new Norwegian artillery goes on range, firepower, mobility, protection and life cycle costs.
The two candidates who scored best in the overall evaluation is Hanwha Techwin (formerly Samsung) with their K9 Thunder and RUAG with their upgraded M109 (Krait).

It also means that Defence equipment (FMA) so far has rejected German Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) and their panzerhaubitze 2000 and French NEXT Caesar.

Follow the link to see a vid of the comp.

Amazing.  Conventional wisdom had the Panzer 2000 as being the best self propelled gun in the West.  Seems like we need to rethink that.