A Foreign Military Sales order from the U.S. Army worth up to $1.148 billion will deliver 250 M1A2 SEPv3 Abrams main battle tanks to Poland by 2025. Poland has ordered 980 South Korean K2 Black Panther tanks, 648 K-9 Krab self-propelled howitzers, and 48 FA-50 advanced trainer/light fighter aircraft. Poland will import the first batch of 180 K2PL tanks, with another 800 manufactured in Poland, under the name “Wilk” (“Wolf”).
The K2PL has modern armor and a Korean Active Protection System for intercepting incoming rockets and anti-tank missiles. K2PL weighs 55 tons. The M1 Abrams is 68 tons.
The first 48 K9 howitzers, made by Hanwha Defense, are also expected to arrive this year, with delivery of a second batch of 600 due to start in 2024. From 2025 these will be produced in Poland.
The Korean order only costs about $5.7 billion. There will also be the costs of operating a larger army with more soldiers and keeping soldiers trained.
Poland is increasing defence spending to 5% of GDP. It will spend about $29 billion and 3% of GDP in 2023 but will increase to 5%. Poland is doubling the size of its army to 250,000.
The FA-50 jet, produced by Korea Aerospace Industries in association with US defense giant Lockheed Martin, is a supersonic light combat aircraft. It is used for ground attack and some air-to-air missions. FA-50 has been used by the South Korean Air Force since 2013. It is armed with Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, Maverick air-to-ground missiles, and a three-barreled 30mm cannon for strafing runs. It can also use precision-guided and gravity bombs.
Russia had 2,800 tanks in active service but has lost about 1000 in Ukraine. Russia has another 10,000 older tanks in storage, but these have been shown to be vulnerable, badly maintained and mostly useless. The U.S. Army has 6,333 tanks, with about half of those in active service. China has an estimated 5,800 tanks. North Korea has about 5800 tanks.
Turkey has about 3000 tanks. Turkey has a large military force of about 775,000.
South Korea’s army has 2500 tanks.
Germany only has about 400 some tanks but they are also producing new tanks.
📢 A new #tank for a new era#Rheinmetall presenting #KF51 #Panther at #Eurosatory2022 – a game changer for the battlefields of the futurehttps://t.co/ejKhsQzxiG @cogeseurosatory #Eurosatory #defence #military #army pic.twitter.com/XRbjYsW0w6
— Rheinmetall (@RheinmetallAG) June 13, 2022
Global military spending passed $2 trillion for the first time in 2021. Increased military spending in Europe and Asia will likely push world military spending to $2.5 to $3 trillion over the next few years.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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