In 1978, South Korea's Hyundai Wia began producing the KH 178 towed 105mm howitzer, a relatively unpopular heavy weapon, but it was not a completely new design, and the number of services was also quite large.
In the 70s of last century, South Korea wanted to develop its own artillery, to the korean industrial technology at that time to develop independently is obviously not realistic, with the assistance of the United States, South Korea plans to establish a production line to mass-produce KM101A1 howitzer, this gun is the United States M101A1 105 mm towed howitzer Korean licensed version, K stands for South Korea, but this gun has been in service for more than thirty years at that time, in terms of performance is not advanced.
South Korea did not put all its hopes on the United States, on the one hand, they produced km101A1, on the other hand, they bought 2 L118 light 105 mm howitzers from Britain, and also obtained some 105 mm howitzer technology from West Germany, south Korea mixed these technologies to develop KH 178, but in the end it was only a deep improvement of the M101A1 howitzer, and South Korea did not even have the right to sell it on the international market alone, subject to U.S. approval.
The most obvious difference between the KH 178 and the M101A1 is the barrel, which uses a longer 34×diameter barrel with progressive rifling inside, a retractor mounted at the muzzle, and a horizontal sliding latch at the rear. Compared to the M101A1's 22-caliber barrel, the KH 178 can use a more powerful propellant to increase the initial muzzle speed from 472 m/s to 662 m/s, the maximum range when firing conventional ammunition from 11,200 m to 14,700 m, and the maximum range of rocket extenders to 18,000 m.
The pitch angle of the gun barrel is -5 ° ~ 65 °, the horizontal firing boundary is 23 ° each, the gun is equipped with RM78 soft recoil mechanism, CG78 open foot gun mount, and new supporting aiming equipment, the gun mount is strengthened, probably in order to withstand stronger recoil impact, the tire is changed to deflated tires, enhance battlefield survivability.
In contrast, the improvement and upgrading of KH 178 is still relatively successful, the total weight of the gun is 2650 kg, the weight has only increased by about 400 kg, the performance has been greatly improved, with a certain flat firing capability, and later used with the GPS system, the combat response is faster, and the maximum rate of fire of the fire theory reaches 15 rounds / min.
However, it is only said that it is excellent compared to the original old model, and there is no advantage over the advanced models of the same period, for example, the L118 howitzer purchased by South Korea from the United Kingdom is much stronger overall, and the gun is lighter and hits farther. Coupled with the fact that NATO was vigorously developing 155 mm howitzers with a range of 30 kilometers at that time, in this case South Korea decided to stop the production of KH 178 guns, so the real KH 178 only produced 18 guns, while other KH 1778 howitzers were actually modified with KM101A1, and the South Korean army had about 1700 guns in its hands, most of which were modified.
The South Korean army used the KH 178 until 2000, and a small number of guns were sold abroad, 16 were purchased in Chile, and dozens more were purchased in Indonesia after buying one test.