Poland and South Korea to sign contract for additional K2 tanks soon

South Korea is close to concluding a deal worth about $6 billion to supply 180 K2 tanks to Poland.

This was reported by Reuters.

Under the contract, Hyundai Rotem Company will manufacture 117 tanks, and the rest will be produced locally by Polish state-owned Polish Armaments Group (PGZ).

The signing ceremony is scheduled for the end of June in Poland. The deal was announced back in March.

Poland’s intention to produce 500 tanks on its own became known in May 2024. According to the plans, the production of the K2 tanks in Poland should start in 2028, and the total number of manufactured vehicles will reach 500 units.

As part of the agreement signed in August 2022, Poland purchased 180 tanks for a total of $3.4 billion.

As of the end of 2024, the South Korean side had handed over 84 tanks to the Polish military, which was in line with the planned delivery schedule for this year.

It is expected that in 2025 Poland will receive another 96 combat vehicles. The two contracts will bring Poland’s K2 armored vehicle fleet to 360 units.

Polish K2s recently made their debut at the Slovak Shield 25 military exercise in Slovakia.

Polish defense procurement

Recently, it became known that the Polish Armaments Group (PGZ) had canceled the procurement procedure for 32 Sikorsky S-70i Black Hawk multi-role helicopters, which were produced at the local PZL Mielec plant owned by Lockheed Martin Corporation.

The procedure for their acquisition for the needs of the airborne troops has been underway since 2023.

According to a spokesperson for the Armaments Group, it can be concluded that the change in priorities was due to new threats on the battlefield.

The purchase of the domestically produced Sikorsky S-70i Black Hawk for the airborne troops meant that they would perform both combat and logistics tasks. They were also supposed to cooperate with AH-64E Apache Guardian attack helicopters ordered by Poland from the United States.