Poland’s leading defense firm, WB Group, has teamed up with South Korea’s defense giant Hanwha to build a missile factory in Poland, giving Warsaw the ability to produce advanced rockets domestically.
The two companies signed an agreement on Tuesday to establish a joint venture that will manufacture 239mm CGR-080 missiles for the Polish Armed Forces’ Homar-K rocket launchers, based on South Korea’s K239 Chunmoo systems.
The K239 Chunmoo is a multiple rocket launcher system designed for rapid, long-range artillery strikes. It fires 239mm rockets and is mounted on mobile truck platforms, allowing it to quickly reposition after firing. The Korean side will hold 51% of the venture, while WB Group will retain 49%.
The missile factory will supply ammunition for Poland’s Homar-K systems and for allied countries that order Chunmoo launchers in the future. Ultimately, Poland’s Rocket and Artillery Forces are expected to operate 290 launchers, each capable of firing up to 12 missiles per salvo to a range of approximately 80 km.
The agreement was signed during the ongoing MSPO defense fair in Kielce, south-central Poland.
‘We will develop very strongly’
Polish Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, who attended the ceremony, described the signing as “one of the most important events of this year’s fair” and emphasized the strategic benefits of acquiring domestic missile production capabilities and technology transfer.
“This demonstrates that we will become more independent, secure, and better prepared,” Kosiniak-Kamysz said, adding that the strategy of “promoting the Polish defense industry abroad is bringing results. “
“We produce more and more in Poland and in Polish private companies. We will develop very strongly,” he said.
‘A new chapter’
Hyunki Cho, South Korea’s Deputy Defense Minister, described the agreement as opening “a new chapter in Polish-Korean defense cooperation.”
He added that the K239 Chunmoo launchers are among South Korea’s flagship defense products and that future collaboration with Poland will deepen in the development of similar systems.
Poland and South Korea have already built a strong defense partnership as Warsaw moves to rapidly modernize its military amid Russia’s ongoing aggression in Ukraine.
Between 2020 and 2024, Seoul supplied 42% of Poland’s major weapons imports, second only to the United States, which accounted for 45%.
Poland is also set to field more tanks by 2030 than the U.K., Germany, France, and Italy combined in total numbers ordered, following a multi-billion-euro deal signed last month with South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem to acquire an additional 180 K2 battle tanks.