Chairman of Polish defense company PGZ visits S.Korea

Sebastian Chwalek, the chairman of Poland's state-owned defense industry company PGZ, is reportedly meeting with domestic Korean companies regarding the import of Korean weapons, such as the K2 tank. According to defense industry sources, Chwalek is scheduled to visit Hyundai Rotem, Hanwha Aerospace Co. and Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd. (KAI) from today until April 22 to check on the current status of weapons production contracted with them.

Last year, Hyundai Rotem signed a first-phase contract with the Polish defense procurement agency to export 180 K2 Black Panther tanks to Poland by 2025. In addition to delivering ten units of the first shipment to Poland in early December last year, Hyundai Rotem also delivered five of the first supply batch to Poland in March of this year.

Hyundai Rotem is also pursuing a contract to supply over 800 units of the K2PL, a local version of the K2 tank, to the Polish side. Last month, the company signed a consortium implementation agreement with PGZ for the production and delivery of the K2PL.

Hanwha Aerospace also signed a contract with the Polish side last year to export 212 K-9 self-propelled howitzers by 2026 and has been sequentially supplying them, starting with the first shipment of 24 guns in October of the same year.

Poland's total import plan for K2 tanks and K-9 self-propelled howitzers is 980 and 648, respectively. Hanwha Aerospace also signed a contract in October of last year to supply 288 units of K239 Chunmoo, a self-propelled multiple rocket launcher (MRL), to the Polish military.

KAI also signed a deal last year with the Polish side to export 48 FA-50 supersonic light attack aircraft. Chwalek is said to be meeting with KAI officials to discuss strengthening cooperation related to existing contracts.

Due to the increase in orders for Korean weapons, the defense industry contract with Poland reached a record high of $17 billion (24.1 trillion won) last year, more than double the previous year's performance.

Write to Dong-Hyun Kim at 3code@hankyung.com