Poland to have more tanks than UK, Germany, France and Italy combined after signing new K2 deal

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Poland has signed a $6.7 billion (25.1 billion zloty) deal to buy an additional 180 South Korean K2 tanks, including 61 that will be made in Poland itself.

The purchase marks the latest stage in Poland’s rapid recent military expansion. Once the agreement is completed by 2030, Poland will operate around 1,100 tanks, which is more than Germany, France, the UK and Italy combined.

Poland began to buy K2 tanks from South Korea in 2022 under the former Law and Justice (PiS) government, with the first units beginning to arrive in December that year.

The new contract includes 180 tanks, 81 support vehicles, a logistics package, training, a full service and repair programme, and a technology transfer provision.

“Poland is gaining the capacity to produce the tanks,” said defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz at the signing ceremony in Gliwice, confirming that 61 of the units will be produced at the Bumar-Łabędy plant, where the deal was finalised.

The signing comes nearly a year later than initially planned. Kosiniak-Kamysz acknowledged the delay, saying the talks were lengthy but ultimately resulted in “much better financial conditions than if we had signed this deal last year”.

Rzeczpospolita, a leading Polish daily, notes that today’s announcement means Poland will have over 950 modern tanks by 2030 – including 360 K2s, 366 American Abrams and 235 German Leopards. When combined with 150 PT-91 Twardy tanks made in Poland in the 1990s, that brings the total to over 1,100.

By comparison, Germany, France, Italy and the UK have a combined total of under 950 tanks, according to Global Firepower, which collates data on the strength of military forces. Among them, only Germany is actively pursuing expansion of its armoured forces, reports Rzeczpospolita.

Within NATO, Turkey (2,238) and Greece (1,344) have more tanks. However, many of those are decades old, notes Rzeczpospolita, and the high numbers reflect tensions between Ankara and Athens but have little impact on NATO’s eastern flank.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Poland has embarked on an unprecedented military spending spree. It has increased its defence budget to 4.7% of GDP this year, by far the highest relative level in NATO.

Poland has made substantial purchases from South Korea, including K239 Chunmoo rocket artillery launchers, FA-50 light combat aircraft, and K9 self-propelled howitzers.

A major portion of the defence spending has also gone to US producers. Beyond Abrams tanks, Poland also signed deals for Apache helicopters, HIMARS artillery launchers, Patriot missile defence systems, and radar reconnaissance airships.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Karol Frankowski/MON (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.