In the largest military export deal in its history, South Korea last week agreed to sell nearly 1,000 K2 main battle tanks to Poland, along with 648 self-propelled howitzers and 48 FA-50 fighter jets, with the governments in both Seoul and Warsaw expressing hopes for further cooperation in the security sphere. The agreement was confirmed on July 27 and is worth an estimated 20 trillion won (€15 billion, $15.3 billion), although the exact figure has yet to be agreed as discussions are continuing on production of the tanks and howitzers under license in Poland.
the first batch of 180 K2 tanks is scheduled to be delivered to the Polish armed forces this year, with analysts pointing out that this will more than compensate for the 240 tanks that Poland has provided to Ukraine to fend off the Russian invasion that started in February.
I expect this will get US defense industry’s panties in a twist.
I expect this will get US defense industry’s panties in a twist.
There is plenty of sugar to go around. Lots of countries have donated their Soviet-era tanks to Ukraine (Macedonia announced just today) and I’m sure they wouldn’t do it unless they were guaranteed some backfill. Big order by Poland, for sure.
In related news, in honor of Ukraine Air Force day the Ukraine Defence Dept. tweeted a drawing of two F-16 in Ukrainian livery, with the caption “Ukrainian Fighting Falcons Strike Back.”
The nickname for the F-16 of course is the Fighting Falcon.
I don’t know what to make of this. It seems Ukraine is expecting or already has received F-16s. I know there were discussions, but I hadn’t heard anything since then.
Interesting that the US had a fit when Turkey bought Russian anti-aircraft missile systems which are capable of shooting down F-16’s (apparently the ones the US were peddling couldn’t), but since South Korea is an ally …
