New Tanks for Poland. Contract Worth $6.7 Billion Signed

• On Friday, a new implementation agreement for the purchase of 180 K2 tanks was signed.
• The document was finalized on Friday at the Bumar-Łabędy plant in Gliwice.
• The ordered machines will include the first units in the K2PL version, adapted to the needs of the Polish Army.

Friday's ceremony was attended by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz and South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back. The agreement was signed by General Artur Kuptel, head of the Armaments Agency, and Yongbae Lee, CEO of Hyundai Rotem.

The executive agreement, expected for many months, covers the delivery of another 180 K2 tanks, manufactured by the South Korean company Hyundai Rotem, to the Polish Army . The agreement also includes a broad technology transfer, under which some of the ordered tanks, in the Polonized K2PL version, will be manufactured at Bumar-Łabędy SA.

This means that the Polish arms industry will return to tank production after a break of more than a decade - the last PT-91 tanks ordered by Malaysia were manufactured in Bumar-Łabędy in 2009. Since then, the Gliwice plant, today belonging to the Polish Armaments Group, has mainly been engaged in the maintenance and modernization of various machines remaining in the inventory of the Polish Army.

In recent weeks, the Minister of National Defense (MON) stated that the contract was worth approximately $6.7 billion. In addition to the tanks themselves and the technology transfer, the agreement will also cover dozens of support vehicles, including technical support and engineering vehicles. The first vehicles, according to the MOD, are expected to arrive in Poland next year .

This is the second contract for the K2 , following a 2022 implementation agreement for 180 tanks from a factory in South Korea. The second implementation agreement was supposed to be signed in September of last year, but it has not yet happened.

The first few units are to be manufactured in South Korea, with the remaining units being manufactured in Poland. The primary contractor will be Bumar-Łabędy, part of the state-owned Polish Armaments Group.