Armed Forces
Bejda on K2PL: Haste is not advisable. "The deal is complicated"
Photo. st. kpr. Piotr Szafarski / 16 Dywizja Zmechanizowana
The Ministry of Defence and the Armaments Agency are waiting for the conclusion of negotiations between the Polish Armaments Group and Hyundai Rotem on the purchase and production of K2PL. This includes the polonisation of production at Polish industrial facilities.
On 2 December, a press briefing was held at the headquarters of the Ministry of Defence with the participation of the Secretary of State in the Ministry of Defence, Paweł Bejda, and the head of the Armaments Agency, Brigadier General Artur Kuptel. The briefing concerned the technical modernisation of the Polish Armed Forces.
One of the topics discussed, was the executive contract under the K2PL tank programme. Minister Bejda confirmed that there are ongoing discussions on this issue all the time, and that the government parties confirmed their desire to pursue this programme during a recent meeting with the Deputy Minister of Defence of the Republic of Korea. At the same time, he pointed out that haste is not advisable due to how complicated the programme is, and that the final talks within the consortium between the Polish Armament Group and Hyundai Rotem are currently underway.
There is also the issue that while 180 K2 tanks were ordered under the first contract, in the case of the second executive contract, in addition to ordering a similar number of 180 tanks, there is also the issue of ordering around 80 support vehicles. These include technical protection vehicles, engineer tanks and assault bridges. General Kuptel also commented on the issue of acquiring more K2 tanks.
Negotiations are ongoing, we have a new consortium, we have full knowledge of the progress. For us, the most important thing is the delivery dates - despite the ongoing negotiations, the delivery date of these tanks is not at risk. We do not attach importance to a specific date in terms of signing the contract.
General Artur Kuptel, Head of the Armament Agency
This is an important declaration of General Kuptel, that at the moment, the date of signing the contract does not threaten the planned schedules of military equipment deliveries, and as the General himself pointed out, the schedules of deliveries, and how efficient and smooth the deliveries are, are one of the many important factors which the Armaments Agency pays attention to, so that the Polish Armed Forces receive the necessary military equipment.