Poland has completed a deal to acquire a second party of 180 South Korean tanks under an agreement of 2022 that will eventually see Warsaw stimulate his arsenal with nearly 1,000 of the armored vehicles.
The deal underlines the rise of Poland as a substantial European military force, as well as the status of South Korea as an important arms supplier – especially for American allies such as wars all over the world exhausting American stocks.
It comes when Russia rises on Ukraine rising, some of which have come within 100 miles of the Polish area on the western border of Ukraine.
Warsaw has been increasing defense expenditure since the Russia invasion of Ukraine, acquiring new weapons, while also helping KYIV with his defense.
As a NATO member who borders Ukraine, it is part of the first line of the Alliance as the Russian leader Vladimir Putin decides to expand his aggression outside of Ukraine.
The Ministry of Defense Van Poland announced the Tank deal, which still has to be formally signed, earlier this month in a post on social media platform X.
It set the price tag to $ 6.7 billion and said that this includes 80 support vehicles, ammunition and logistics and training packages for the Polish army.
The deal for the K2 head combat tanks considered as one of the most powerful in the world, includes units made in South Korea by defense giant Hyundai Rotem and the establishment of a production line in Poland for a Polish variant, the K2PL, according to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (Dapa) of South.
A K9 Thunder Self -driving Houwitser participates in a military parade of the armed forces in Warsaw, Poland, on August 15, 2023. – Damian Lemaski/Bloomberg/Getty images/file
Sixty of the batch of 180 tanks will be built in Poland, said the post of the Polish Ministry of Defense on X. The first 30 of the tanks made in South Korea that are included in the new contract are expected to arrive in Poland next year, it said.
In 2022 the two countries signed a deal for Poland to get 180 k2s. Everything except 45 of them have been delivered, whereby the rest is expected to arrive in Poland by the end of the year, said Hyundai Rotem.
That framework was once considered the largest overseas defense agreement in South Korea. It included a total of 980 K2S, 648 Self-driving K9-Pantserde Houwitsers and 48 FA-50 fighter jets, said the Polish Defense Minister at the time.
The ministry said that the armored vehicles would partly replace the Soviet era tanks that Poland has donated to Ukraine to use in his fight against Russia.
A report in March of the Wilson Center based in Washington, DC, said that Poland Ukraine has given more than 300 tanks and more than 350 infantry vehicles and armored personnel carriers.
Poland has been sharp in recent days after Russia has performed Drone attacks on Ukraine.
A Russian drone barrage against the northwestern Ukrainian city of Lutsk was so intense that the Warsaw made sure that fighter jets are scrambling. Lutsk is about 50 miles from the Polish border.
A NATO report from April called the Polish efforts to dramatically increase the defense issues, compared to the Russian threat. The defense expenditure of Warsaw has grown from 2.7% of GDP in 2022 to an expected 4.7% in 2025, according to the report.
“Of all NATO bondmates, it spends the highest percentage of his GDP in defense,” said NATO report.
It noticed on the purchase of Poland from South Korean arms to quickly fill holes that were left behind by donations to Ukraine.
The Wilson Center report said that Poland “demonstrably emerged as the most capable military power in Europe.”
But a report of the Rand Corp thinking tank expressed caution for the financing of the weapon building of Poland.
Many of the purchases are “financed by direct loans from countries supplying equipment,” said Rand, adding: “If securing such loans is impossible, market financing may be too expensive to convert framework agreements into binding contracts.”
Rand also said that Poland stands for recruitment challenges and should increase the troop strength by almost 50% in the next 10 years.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zenskyr and Poland President Andrzej Duda greet each other when they arrive for their meeting outside Mariinskyi Palace in Kiev, Ukraine on June 28, 2025. – Sergei Supinksy/AFP/Getty Images/File
In the meantime, South Korea has emerged as the world's 10th largest arms exporter in the past five years, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
During that period, Poland received 46% of South Korean military exports, followed by the Philippines at 14% and India by 7%, according to the trends of the Sipri in International Arms Transfers 2024 report.
As the war in Ukraine is towed, just like Israel's war in Gaza, the American military aid for Ukraine and Israel has taken away its weapons stocks. South Korea is therefore increasingly being seen as an option for our allies who need weapons, according to a report from 2024 of the DC-based Stimson Center.
And Seoul's arms industry can become important for Washington in the future, according to the report.
“Increased South Korean Defense -Industrial Basic Capacity, in particular in weapons and shipbuilding, can directly support the United States,” said the report.
Shipbuilding is seen as a certain area of South Korean military industrial force, and Washington has already seen contracts for the maintenance of the American Navy supply ships to South Korean yards while the navy is struggling with a backlog in American shipyards.
Together with the K2 tanks, Zuid -Korea has sent 174 K9 Howissers to Poland under the 2022 framework, with 38 to be delivered, according to contractor Hanwha Aerospace.
A second tranche of 152 K9s is in the making, said Hanwha.
Of the 48 ordered FA-50-Jets, only 12 have been sent so far, according to the Korean space industry of the manufacturer.
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