Poland receives first K2 tanks from new $6.5B deal
Poland has received its first batch of tanks from a second, $6.5 billion contract with South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem, Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said.
Twenty-eight K2 tanks arrived in Poland and will go to the 16th Mechanized Division, he said.
The contract was signed August 1, 2025, and covers 180 additional tanks. It follows an earlier deal for 180 K2GF tanks that Poland completed receiving in November 2025.
Kosiniak-Kamysz said the tanks delivered in this batch are standard K2 models, and that future shipments under the same contract will include the K2PL variant, a Polish-modified version built in part from domestically produced components. The second contract calls for 116 K2GF tanks between 2026 and 2027, followed by 64 K2PL tanks between 2028 and 2030. Of those K2PL tanks, 61 are set to be assembled in Poland at the Bumar-Łabędy plant in Gliwice, which belongs to the state-owned defense group PGZ.
The K2 Black Panther is a South Korean third-generation main battle tank armed with a 120 mm smoothbore gun and an autoloader. It also carries a 7.62 mm machine gun and a 12.7 mm heavy machine gun.
Kosiniak-Kamysz described the delivery as a step that expands Poland’s domestic production capacity and strengthens the country’s defense posture, tying the arrival of the K2PL variant to the broader technology-transfer terms of the contract.
The 16th Pomeranian Mechanized Division, based in northeastern Poland, has been the primary recipient of K2 tanks under the earlier contract, which equipped the 20th Bartoszyce Mechanized Brigade, the 9th Braniewo Armored Cavalry Brigade and the 15th Giżycko Mechanized Brigade. Six additional tanks from that contract went to the Land Forces Training Center in Poznań.
The second contract, worth roughly $6.5 billion, also includes 81 support vehicles based on the K2 chassis: 25 combat engineering vehicles, 25 armored bridge layers and 31 armored recovery vehicles, along with ammunition, a logistics and training package, and technology transfer. Brigadier General Artur Kuptel, head of Poland’s Armament Agency, signed the agreement on the Polish side at the Bumar-Łabędy facility, with Hyundai Rotem CEO Lee Yong-Bae signing for the South Korean company.
Poland’s tank purchases from South Korea are part of a broader rearmament effort that has included M1A2 SEPv3 Abrams tanks from the United States and continued operation of Leopard 2 tanks acquired from Germany. Poland had roughly 117 M1A2 SEPv3 tanks delivered as of early 2026. Officials have said Poland aims to field around 900 tanks across the three platforms by 2030, which would make it one of the largest tank fleets in Europe.
Source: Defence Blog
