Poland has received another batch of K2 Black Panther tanks from Hyundai Rotem, a little over a year after signing a follow-on contract.
By Sam Cranny-Evans, editor of Calibre Defence, published on August 25, 2026.
With a single image showing the hull of a tank suspended from a crane at a port, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, the deputy Prime Minister of Poland announced the delivery of additional K2 tanks.
The image was posted on X.com on August 25 with the caption, “28 K2 tanks have just reached Poland and will bolster the 16th Mechanized Division.” The contract he refers to is actually the second Polish order for the K2 that was signed on August 1, 2025.
The first contract dates back to July 2022, when the Polish MND signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Hyundai Rotem covering the procurement and delivery of 180 K2 tanks from the company’s South Korean production lines. The contract to put that MoU into action followed the month after, and the first ten tanks had been delivered by December 2022.
Simultaneously the Polish Armaments Group (PGZ) signed a partnership agreement with Hyundai Rotem in July 2022, initiating plans to develop and manufacture the K2PL in Poland. It covered another 180 K2s from the South Korean production line and 820 K2PLs – Polish versions of the tanks, many of which are expected to be manufactured in Poland. However, that total of 1,000 tanks tends to confuse reporting on the subject; the MND has only signed two firm orders.
Poland’s K2 order book
Poland had a total of 360 K2 tanks on order by August 2026. Deliveries of the first 180 tanks ordered in 2022 were completed in November 2025 and announced by the Deputy Prime Minister. The second order – which is the one referred to at the top of this article – was valued at around $6.5 billion. It covered “180 tanks and supporting vehicles, including 31 recovery vehicles, 25 engineering vehicles, and 25 supporting bridges, as well as a full logistics, service, and training package,” Bumar-Labedy, the PGZ subsidiary that will eventually manufacture the K2PL, said at the time.
According to Defence24, that August 2025 order is divided into 116 K2GF (the designation for the standard variant) and 64 K2PLs, but the Polish-specific variant will not be delivered until 2028. Once deliveries are complete, the Polish Army will have 895 modern tanks across three types – the M1A2, K2, and Leopard 2A5 – in service. This will easily make it one of the largest armoured forces in Europe, with many more tanks than the UK and France combined. For reference, Germany is expected to deploy 433 modern Leopard 2s by 2030, which means Poland will have a little over twice as many tanks.
Calibre comment: The risk of Poland’s industrial modernisation
A Polish K2GF on display in 2023. Credit: US DoD/Staff Sgt. Matthew Foster
Large programmes like the K2 are driving a rapid expansion of Poland’s domestic industry that may become a burden to future governments. For instance, PGZ announced a $230 million investment in Bumar-Labedy in October 2025 as part of the modernisation required to meet the production goals of the K2 programme. Poland has also signed an agreement with BAE Systems to introduce innovative new procedures for the production of artillery ammunition, and is procuring at least 700 counter-drone vehicles through its domestic SAN programme. The scale of investment is truly significant and is helping to establish an industrial powerhouse for defence production – in the land domain at least – in central Europe.
However, with that expansion comes a risk that is worth acknowledging. That expansion carries the expectation that the Polish state will support the larger industry once production on capital programmes is complete. Traditionally, states would expect export orders to support the domestic infrastructure, easing the reliance upon the home state’s budgetary cycles. However, Poland is now one of many European countries expanding their domestic defence industry. Artillery ammunition production is a crowded market with multiple factories in Europe producing shells or due to come online in the next few years. Many states that could or would order a tank around the world have done so since 2022, and the same is true of infantry fighting vehicles.
In a nutshell, Poland is pouring funds into expanding its defence industry but the future market for large capital platforms is clouded and unclear. Unless there is a major war, which part of that expansion is arguably for, it will become a cost that future Polish taxpayers may find themselves supporting. This is, unfortunately, part of deterrence and a necessary one at this stage. But it is worth being clear-eyed about the future trajectory of the defence industrial expansion in Europe, especially when it is driven by large single orders such as the K2PL.
The lead image shows the delivery of a K2GF tank to Poland in August 2026. Credit: Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz via https://x.com/KosiniakKamysz/status/2092127897192407092.