In recent years, South Korea's military enterprises have made relatively large gains in the world's weapons market. Its F/A-50 (T-50) series fighters, K-9 self-propelled howitzers and other main battle equipment have opened up sales and have been favored by many regions and countries. Among them, the number of K-9 self-propelled howitzers has reached 9. Under the influence of favorable forms, South Korea's weapons and equipment began to attract more attention from potential users. Among them, the latest K-2 main battle tank developed by South Korea itself has recently hoped to get a chance to export the whole vehicle.
During the European Defense Expo in Paris last week, the Polish Arms Group signed a memorandum of understanding with South Korea's Hyundai Rotem to develop and manufacture a new K2PL main battle tank for the Polish army. The tank has not been exported to the whole vehicle before, and the only foreign user in Turkey is mainly the introduction of technology to integrate into the country's Altay main battle tank project.
After Russia launched a special military operation against Ukraine, Poland was very active in assisting Ukraine, providing a large number of main battle equipment in succession, which also led to a shortage of its own military stockpile. In order to make up for its combat strength as soon as possible, Poland is accelerating the pace of procurement of South Korean defense equipment, and hopes to use the Asian country's large-scale production capacity and lax policy on technology transfer to increase the combat effectiveness of its military.
According to the Polish government, Poland is currently in talks with Hyundai Rotem to buy hundreds of K2PL Polish versions of the Panther main battle tanks for its troops.
Polish Defense Minister Marios Braszzak discussed his wish list of weapons, which include South Korean-made main battle tanks, self-propelled guns and infantry fighting vehicles, during a June 13 meeting with military leaders. The minister visited South Korea in late May, visited Hanwha Defense's factory in South Korea, and watched combat demonstrations of several new main battle equipment. During the visit, Brashzak discussed the supply of South Korean-made tanks and fighter jets.
The K2 Panther main battle tank, which has a total combat weight of 56 tons, is mainly equipped with a 120 mm/55 caliber smoothbore gun and an automatic loader with a rate of fire of 10 rounds per minute and an active protection system. Powered by a 1,500-horsepower diesel engine and fully automatic transmission, the main battle rig can reach speeds of 70 km/h (44 mph) and maintain speeds of up to 53 km/h (33 mph) in off-road conditions.
However, although the paper performance of the K-2 tank is quite good. However, due to its large number of components technology is still dependent on imports; Even the shape is modeled after the famous German Leopard II series. Therefore, this main battle equipment is more suitable for the term "self-assembly".
At the just-concluded European Defense Show, Hyundai Rotem presented a miniature model of the new K2PL main battle tank at its booth. Photographs of the model show that the Polish variant has a larger chassis than the Panther, with an extra pair of load wheels reaching 7 pairs.
If so, the deal is finally reached. Then the Polish army will have three advanced main battle tanks at the same time: the German Leopard II series, the American M1A2 series and the Korean K2 series. Among them, Virtue products have occupied the top three places in the world tank rankings for many years.
Except, the K-2 main battle tank. Poland is also very interested in the K9 self-propelled howitzer developed by Hanwha Defense. After delivering 18 used Krab self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine, Poland signed a contract earlier this month for the export of more than 50 155mm Krab howitzers to Ukraine. Polish daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna reported that the deal involved about 60 howitzers worth about PLN 3 billion (about $700 million).
In fact, the Polish Krab self-propelled howitzer was a mixture of turrets and artillery equipped with the British AS-90 self-propelled gun on the chassis of the Korean K-9.
Earlier this month, after visiting the South Korean K9 manufacturing plant and the Units operating artillery systems in the South Korean Army, the Polish Army delegation discussed the purchase of K9 self-propelled howitzers.
Because South Korea's export policy is relatively relaxed, this potential contract has a variety of options, including the provision of the K9 howitzer system vehicle, only the K9 chassis, or the package sale of the K9 howitzer and K10 automatic ammunition supply vehicle.
Hanwha Defense spokesman Jeff Sung told reporters, "Hanwha Defense and the Polish defense industry have established a strong partnership on the successful Krab SELF-Propelled Howitzer Project. He also added that eight foreign users — Turkey, Poland, India, Finland, Norway, Estonia, Australia and Egypt — had ordered the K9 howitzer.
One of the main reasons for the popularity of the K-9 self-propelled howitzer is that it adopts NATO standards, can fire all NATO standard 155 mm ammunition, and has a range of more than 40 kilometers. Equipped with an automatic fire control system, the K-9 has a rate of fire of six rounds per minute and can fire continuously for three minutes.
Powered, the 47-ton K-9 uses a 1,000-horsepower diesel engine with a top speed of 67 kilometers per hour. The main design of the gun was to meet the tactical concept of "shooting and moving" - after shooting at the target, quickly move to another position to avoid being hit by enemy counter-fire.
In terms of infantry fighting vehicles, Poland is considering buying Hanwha Defense's 25-ton K21, which is in service with the South Korean army. At the same time, Poland also paid attention to South Korea's next-generation 42-ton Redback Redback Spider heavy infantry fighting vehicle. The car is currently competing for Australia's LAND 400 Phase III program.
Hanwha Defense also presented the vehicle at the European Defense Show and said at a press conference that in Europe, the Redback tank is of great concern due to ongoing conflicts in certain parts of the region, as many European armed forces are looking for vehicles equipped with state-of-the-art armor protection capabilities, capable of withstanding tank weapons and having all-terrain maneuverability. ”