Warmate to be delivered to Korea. Declarations Regarding K2 MBT Production

„You expressed the wish to have Warmate systems this year. On behalf of the WB Group, I would like to express a commitment: you will have Warmate systems in Korea this year.” - addressed Kubica to the Deputy Minister of Defence of the Republic of Korea, Maj. Gen. Res. Sung Il „We will do everything in our power to have them delivered,” he added, noting that the company is working with Korea’s defence procurement agency DAPA on this. „I am confident that these activities will end in our joint success as well as strengthening Korea’s defence capabilities. With systems that work in many countries and have proven themselves in combat conditions,” - Kubica said.

Speaking about the opportunities and challenges facing Polish-Korean industrial cooperation, Sung stressed that Korea has built its defence industry to become most independent from foreign supplies. „The Korean defence industry was not planned as an exporter of our products,” he said. But, he added, Korea has found that its products can be used by other countries, and exporting also means sharing technology. He assured that the Korean authorities« goal is for Poland to be able to independently operate equipment made in Korea. „We can go to a higher level of cooperation. If something happens in Korea, you can support us, when something happens in Europe, Poland will be Poland’s supplier,” he said.

DAPA Deputy Minister Hyunki Cho admitted that talks on funding Polish procurement in Korea are difficult and require convincing government representatives of the importance of Polish-Korean industrial cooperation. „We need to move to another level of bilateral cooperation,” - he said. He assured that the second execution contract for the K2 tanks would involve doing some of the work in Poland and using Polish technology.

„So far we have technology transfer from Korea to Poland, but I believe we should also adopt the option of transfer towards Korea,” - Cho said. According to him, this could include, for example, solutions used in the chassis of crawler transporters.

The deputy head of the Armament Agency, Colonel Piotr Paluch, said that today the answer to the question of whether Polish industry is ready to produce K2 would be negative, but it will be possible in the near future thanks to technology transfer, „nevertheless on the basis of final assembly - the assembly of tanks from individual elements,” for the reason, among others, that Hyundai Rotem is also not a manufacturer of all K2 systems. He pointed out that the polonisation of the K2 began with the start of deliveries of the first 180 tanks ordered, which contain Polish systems.

„We would like to involve Polish industry as much as possible in production, service and maintenance, and in the future modernisation and modification,” Paluch added.

Deputy Minister Bejda stated that while the previous minister had envisaged importing the first 500 of the anticipated 1,000 tanks „without any modifications, and only the next 500 units will possibly be polonised”, the current leadership of the ministry wants „to do it much faster”, so that the 180 tanks that are the subject of the second execution contract „will already be a polonised batch”. This, he added, is to be served by the new consortium agreement between PGZ and Huyndai Rot, signed in July. Funding discussions are ongoing, he said, with the Korean side coming up with „some kind of proposals”. He admitted that these discussions are not easy. „We have to count every zloty that is spent by the Polish taxpayer,” he said.

Bejda pointed out that if Korean equipment performs well in Poland, which is a member of the EU and NATO, it will be a recommendation for further European allies, it also means an opportunity for overhauls and servicing of, for example, K9 howitzers purchased by other customers.

PGZ President Krzysztof Trofiniak assessed that the first focus should be on acquiring the know-how to service and repair the new equipment and produce some variable parts. According to Trofiniak, the process of acquiring the know-how will take two years, similarly to the Korean chassis used in the Krab cannon howitzer. He pointed out that the industry should make such realistic assumptions. „I think that today no one will define whether 1,000 tanks will be achievable at all and in what time perspective,” he said.

Gen. (ret.) Eui-Seong Lee, Hyundai Rotem Senior Vice President, pointed to two objectives of the cooperation - supplying the Polish army and involving Polish industry in tank production. „The first contract focused on the supply of tanks, we expect that with the second contract we will be able to establish a solid foundation of capabilities for the production and service of tanks,” - he said. He added that subsequent batches will use increasingly newer systems to increase battlefield survivability, introduced taking into account lessons from the war in Ukraine.