South Korea’s military intends to purchase Polish Warmate loitering munitions, given their success in Ukraine.

The Korean media Hankyung reported on this.

On September 3, the Ministry of National Defense of the Republic of Korea received a request from the Defense Acquisition Program Administration to sign a contract for Warmate drones manufactured by the Polish company WB Electronics.

The contract is worth $10.85 million (14.6 billion won) and will include the supply of about 200 drones and related equipment.

“We plan to receive just under 200 drones. Some of them should arrive this year, and the rest – by the end of next year,” a source in the Ministry of National Defense said.

Currently, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration is preparing a tender for further contracting.

The Arms Race on the Korean Peninsula

The publication noted that the Ministry of National Defense is making large purchases of Polish-made drones mainly because North Korea is accelerating the development of similar unmanned systems.

The choice of Polish-made unmanned systems was made not least because of the experience of their combat use in the fields of the Russian-Ukrainian war, where they proved to be effective. In addition, the ease of establishing their mass production is noted.

This year, the South Korean military sent its own delegation to Poland, headed by representatives of the Drone Operations Command, after the Polish government approached the Korean government with a proposal to purchase Polish drones.

In August, North Korea released footage of tests of its own attack drones, similar to Israel’s Harop and Hero.

North Korea’s news agency KCNA said that the “kamikaze drones” had successfully completed the test, correctly identifying and destroying designated targets after flying along different preset routes.

This month at the International Defence Industry Exhibition (MSPO) 2024 in Kielce, Poland, local defense company WB GROUP presented its new Warmate 50 strike drone concept.