Poland is set to have more tanks by 2030 than the U.K., Germany, France and Italy combined, after Warsaw signed another multi-billion-euro deal with a South Korean defense company to procure additional K2 tanks.
On Friday, Poland signed an agreement worth over $6 billion with Hyundai Rotem for 180 K2 battle tanks. This is the country’s second major deal with the South Korean company after the first was struck in 2022, also for 180 K2 tanks.
The new agreement will take Poland’s total number of tanks to 1,100 tanks by 2030, including 61 produced domestically.
This would give Warsaw more tanks than the combined total of the U.K., Germany, France and Italy, who are expected to field around 950 tanks by 2030.
Only two NATO member states—Turkey and Greece—will have more tanks than Poland, with 2,238 and 1,344 respectively.
The new Polish-South Korean deal comes as Warsaw and its NATO allies continue to bolster their defenses in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Leading Europe’s military modernization
Galvanized by Russia’s ongoing aggression in Ukraine, Warsaw has rapidly accelerated its military modernization efforts.
As a leading advocate for increased NATO defense spending, Poland—which borders Ukraine, Russia, and Moscow-aligned Belarus—has allocated 4.7% of its GDP to defense in 2025. Next year it plans to increase it further to 5%.If realized, this would make Poland one of the first NATO members to meet the new 5% defense spending baseline agreed upon by alliance members during a landmark NATO summit in June.