Polish Minister of National Defense Mariusz Blaszczak said on June 13, 2022 at a meeting of the leadership of the Ministry of National Defense and the Polish Armed Forces that "proven Korean-made weapons, including infantry fighting vehicles, which will complement the Borsuk BMP, howitzers and K2 tanks, will be purchased in South Korea for the Polish army."
A demonstration sample of the K2NO tank produced by the South Korean Hyundai Rotem Corporation on tests in Norway, 27.01.2022 (c) [i]Håkon Bonafede[/i]
In an interview with a Polish resource Defence24.pl The press secretary of the Polish Armaments Agency, Lieutenant Colonel Krzysztof Platek, commenting on the minister's statements, said that the official procurement procedure for this equipment has not yet begun, but technical negotiations are underway. He also stated that from the point of view of specific programs, the purchased BMP will be a "promising, not transitional" solution. In practice, this most likely means that the purchase of a new AS21 Redback BMP developed by the South Korean Hahwha group is being considered, and not the older K21 BMP.
Plans for the purchase of a new BMP in South Korea raise questions about the prospects of the independently developed in Poland under the head role of the Huta Stalowa Wola (HSW) enterprise Borsuk BMP, although Minister Blashchak specifically mentioned that South Korean BMP "complement Borsuk BMP". However, plans for parallel production of two IFVs for a relatively small Polish army look very doubtful. Now the first Borsuk prototype is being tested and four more samples have been ordered.
As for howitzers, it is reported that the negotiations concern the acquisition of the chassis of South Korean 155 mm / 52 self-propelled howitzers K9 Thunder, which should then be used for the production of Polish self-propelled howitzers Krab by HSW in order to increase the rate of production. HSW recently received an export order for 56 Krab self-propelled guns from Ukraine is also planning an additional contract for about 80 Krab units for the Polish Army, in addition to the 122 previously ordered. Krab is based on the HSW licensed K9 chassis, although the first batch of 24 chassis was delivered directly from South Korea. However, apparently, chassis production remains a bottleneck for HSW, and now it has been decided to return to their direct import from South Korea.
Regarding Poland's purchase program of K2 tanks, Lieutenant Colonel Krzysztof Platek stated that here we are talking about a "spiral development of potential", in which Poland will purchase a certain batch of ready-made tanks to meet the most urgent needs, along with the creation of production facilities in Poland, technology transfer and organization of production in Poland of tanks in the final configuration required by the Polish side, and the previously acquired K2 tanks will then be upgraded.
According to unofficial information in the Polish media, at the first stage, the Polish side plans to purchase in South Korea a total of 180 ready-made K2 tanks manufactured by Hyundai Rotem Corporation in three batches, and these tanks allegedly have to correspond to the K2NO modification currently offered by Norway. The main difference between K2NO and the base K2 is enhanced protection, which led to an increase in combat weight from 55.5 tons (in K2) to 61.5 tons. The installation of the Rafael Trophy active protection complex is proposed on K2NO and the South Korean DV27K diesel engine is used in combination with the German Renk HSWL-295TL transmission.
So far, it is unclear whether the "spiral development" and plans for the release of a modified tank in Poland are understood to refer further to the K2PL project submitted by Hyundai Rotem in 2020 to the Polish tank tender under the Wilk program. The project of the K2PL tank, according to the materials presented, demonstrates quite significant differences from the basic K2 - in particular, the use of a seven-roll chassis instead of a six-roll chassis K2, and redesigned protection of the hull and turret due to the use of not only additional passive, but also dynamic protection. The K2PL project actually looks like an iteration of the Turkish Altay tank, in the creation of which, as is known, Hyundai Rotem actively participated, using its K2 tank as the basis.
In addition to these announcements, Polish Minister of National Defense Mariusz Blaszczak said at the aforementioned meeting of the leadership of the Ministry of National Defense and the Polish Armed Forces on June 13 that two more divisions will be formed as part of the Polish army in addition to the four existing ones. The new divisions will be deployed "along the Vistula River, in the central part of Poland." According to Blaszczak's statements, the number of the Polish armed forces as a whole is planned to increase to 300 thousand people, and the level of Polish defense spending to 3% of GDP (that is, to about $ 20 billion in 2023). He also confirmed plans to purchase 500 American HIMARS missile systems, saying: "the war in Ukraine has shown how important artillery is, so Poland should become an artillery power."
Currently, there are four divisions in the Polish Army: the 11th Lubusz Armored Cavalry Division (management in Jagani), the 12th Szczecin Mechanized Division (Szczecin), the 16th Pomeranian Mechanized Division (Olsztyn) and the 18th Mechanized Division (Sedlec), each of three brigades. In 2018, the cost of forming one new division, including the purchase of the necessary weapons for it, was estimated by Polish experts at 50 billion zlotys (about $ 11 billion).
One of the prototypes of the AS21 Redback infantry fighting vehicle produced by the South Korean Hahwha group on tests in Australia, 2021 (c) Hahwha