AEI Fellow, Contributing to FP
Analysts say the Korean K2 tank is attracting attention as an alternative to fill the void, as Europe’s tank inventory has plunged due to large-scale arms support to Ukraine, and Germany has shown chaotic movements in the process of support Ukraine for its main tank. A leopard 2. came out
Blake Herzinger, a researcher in Indo-Pacific defense policy at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a representative conservative think tank in the United States, wrote an article in Foreign Policy (FP) on the 30th (local time). to South Korea’s K2 tank, saying European defense partners were looking for an ‘alternative’.
Herzinger said, in an article called ‘Korea can sweep the European tank market’, that Hyundai Rotem and Hanwha Defense have won large scale arms contracts with Poland. It is a way to secure tanks much faster and at a price competitive.” Poland plans to form a consortium with Korean companies to produce the K2PL, an improved Polish model of the K2, and the K9PL, a Polish self-propelled howitzer.
Last year, Poland signed large-scale arms supply contracts with Korean defense companies, including 1,000 K2 tanks, 672 K9 self-propelled howitzers, 48 FA-50 light attack aircraft, and 288 Cheonmu multiple rocket launchers. On December 6, immediately after the initial shipments of K2 tanks and K9 self-propelled howitzers arrived in Poland, the takeover ceremony was attended by an unusually large number of high-ranking government officials, including Polish President Andrzej Duda and the Deputy Prime Minister and Defence. Minister Mariusz Bułashcak. It is also quite unusual that the first shipment arrived in the country only four months after the contract was signed.
Analysts say Poland has rushed to deliver South Korean weapons to fill the vacuum caused by large-scale arms aid to Ukraine. Poland, which has rapidly expanded its armed forces after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, announced on the same day that it would increase its defense budget to 4 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) this year. If this plan is realized, Poland’s defense budget relative to its economy will be the largest among NATO allies.
Herzinger said that Turkey, Slovakia and Norway are also negotiating with South Korea for the introduction of K2 tanks. He said that it is unlikely that all of Europe will immediately turn to buying Korean tanks because of the sensitivity of the South Korean government to Russia He pointed out that being there is a strength.
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