South Korean defense firm Samsung Techwin on Wednesday signed a $310-million contract with Poland’s state-run firm Huta Stalowa Wola to deliver 120 indigenous K-9 self-propelled howitzers from next year through 2022.

Under the contract, the first batch of 24 K-9s will be delivered to Poland through 2017, and the rest will be manufactured in Poland. It was the first K-9 export deal since 2001 when Samsung Techwin signed a contract to export 350 K-9s to Turkey.

Samsung Techwin CEO Kim Chul-kyo signed the contract in the presence of Poland’s Huta Stalowa Wola President Krzysztof Trofiniak and other key company and government officials in Seoul on Wednesday.

Developed by the state-run Agency for Defense Development and Samsung Techwin, the K-9 has a maximum range of 40 km and maximum speed of 67 km per hour. The howitzer has been a key element of the defense of South Korea’s northwestern border islands.

Samsung Techwin anticipates that exports could be expanded to $1 billion should Poland purchase additional items including vehicles for the howitzers, and that the deal will spur bilateral efforts to expand cooperation in the defense industry.

The company said that negotiations over the export deal gained momentum after President Park Geun-hye and Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski agreed to build a strategic partnership in the areas of security and the defense industry in October last year.

On the back of the successful deal, the company is expected to ramp up its marketing efforts to further export its howitzers. It has been pushing to sell them to countries in northern and eastern Europe, including Norway and Finland.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)