Those are their newest model, K2. It does have good opinions on their service in OcK army and the parameters are apparently superior to tanks like Leo2 or Abrams, but it wasn’t battle tested anywhere. One of polish commanders already serving on them said it had very good main cannon, front armour and communication system, but side armor is weaker. Polish produced version will be supposedly slightly larger to improve armor.
Poland signed the contract on incredibly huge number of 1000, but it include licence so 820 will be produced in Poland, which automatically make the deal much better than anything EU or USA MIC were willing to sign, and Koreans are way more likely to keep that deal.
Turkey will also produce them as “Altay” tank so they might probably see combat there soonest.
Thank you for the info, it’s quite unexpected. Poland not only buying weapons not from USA (even if from their vassals), but licensing as well? Perhaps the military hopes to copy them?
As for the tanks, I’m kinda curious about the logistics and such. On paper, Leos and Challengers also had good stats - good weapons, good armour. But then there were issues with repairs, with getting them places, with matching ammunition, etc. IIRC there was an issue with some NATO vehicles in Ukraine where they couldn’t be provided to the front, because the bridges couldn’t handle the weight. Could be misremembering though
Poland is currently in shit situation considering tanks. There is less than 300 T-72 and PT-91 (Polish made improved version of T-72) combined left, around 200 Leopards 2, 28 K2, 28 Abrams. 250 Abrams and 150 K2 deliveries are pending.
Additionally, nobody can be sure if Washington and Berlin won’t order Poland to just give all those to Ukraine, since all those tanks (and airplanes) we bought from those two countries are apparently still legally owned by them somehow?
In such situation even such crazy govt as PiS would like something to rely on.
But then there were issues with repairs, with getting them places, with matching ammunition
Yes, Polish Armed Forces are currently in precisely this situation. Using both Warsaw Pact and NATO standarised ammunition, tons of different contractors for weapons, and as you know US contractors are notoriously bad for things like self repair or procurement of spare parts (it already led to many F-16 being cannibalised for example and the 2 US Perry class frigates are barely operable if at all).
IIRC there was an issue with some NATO vehicles in Ukraine where they couldn’t be provided to the front, because the bridges couldn’t handle the weight.
Yeah this is precisely why soviet MBT’s tended to weight around 45 tons. Most modern NATO tanks and projects based on them like K2 tend to weight 55 tons which is a stretch but still manageable. Challenger and newer Abrams are however 62+ tons which do pose a problem even for developed countries.
