“Ukraine’s Front Lines Are Faltering”: Eastern Europe Launches Full-Scale Rearmament as South Korean Defense Contractors Expand Their Presence

Hanwha Aerospace expands its export footprint to Croatia
South Korean defense contractors accelerate their push into Eastern Europe, including Poland and Romania
Ukraine’s air defenses under severe strain as Russia intensifies its offensive, accelerating additional support

Hanwha Aerospace is set to export the South Korean-made Chunmoo multiple-launch rocket system to Croatia. With Croatia joining Poland, Romania and Estonia in procuring South Korean weapons, the market presence of South Korea’s defense industry is expanding rapidly across Eastern Europe. The trend appears to reflect growing regional security concerns as Russia intensifies its offensive against Ukraine. As instability mounts amid gaps in Ukraine’s air defenses, Eastern European countries have begun replacing aging Soviet-era weapons and strengthening their sovereign defense capabilities.

Croatia to Procure Chunmoo

According to South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) on the 10th (local time unless otherwise specified), a signing ceremony for the Chunmoo export contract between Hanwha Aerospace and Croatia’s Ministry of Defense was held in Zagreb that day. The contract is valued at $477 million. Chunmoo is a multiple-launch rocket system deployed since 2015 to counter North Korea’s multiple-launch rocket and long-range artillery threats in the event of a contingency on the Korean Peninsula. It can fire three types of rockets—130 mm munitions with a maximum range of approximately 36 km, 239 mm munitions with a range of about 80 km and 600 mm munitions with a range of around 290 km. Each launcher carries 40 rounds of 130 mm rockets, 12 rounds of 239 mm rockets or two rounds of 600 mm rockets.

The 18 Chunmoo systems Croatia will acquire are sufficient to establish an entire artillery battalion comprising three batteries. Rather than merely augmenting existing capabilities, the large-scale program will replace the country’s aging multiple-launch rocket systems and comprehensively reorganize its core long-range strike architecture around South Korean weapons. DAPA said it expects the contract to enable bilateral defense cooperation to evolve beyond the export of individual weapons systems into a long-term strategic partnership encompassing industrial collaboration with local companies and follow-on logistics support.

Hanwha’s Footprint in Eastern Europe

Hanwha Aerospace is also securing export contracts with a growing number of Eastern European countries. Poland is the most prominent example. After signing a framework agreement with Hanwha in 2022 to acquire 672 K9 self-propelled howitzers, Poland ordered 218 locally configured Homar-K multiple-launch rocket systems based on Chunmoo for $3.55 billion that same year. In 2024, it signed a second contract worth $1.6 billion for an additional 72 Homar-K systems and thousands of guided missiles with ranges of 80 km and 290 km. Hanwha Aerospace has also agreed with local defense contractor WB Electronics on plans to manufacture CGR-080 239 mm guided missiles in Poland.

In Romania, Hanwha is expanding its operations around the K9 platform. Hanwha Aerospace signed a $1 billion contract with Romania’s Ministry of National Defense in 2024 to supply 54 K9 self-propelled howitzers and 36 K10 armored ammunition resupply vehicles. In February, it also broke ground on H-ACE Europe, its first production facility in Europe, in Petrești, Dâmbovița County, southern Romania. Estonia has emerged as a major customer in the Baltic region. Already an operator of the K9, Estonia placed a $337 million order last December for six Chunmoo launchers, three types of missiles—the CGR-080, CTM-MR and CTM-290—and an operations and training support package. In May, it decided to acquire three additional Chunmoo systems, raising its fleet to nine.

Table 1. Hanwha Aerospace’s Major Export Deals in Eastern Europe

South Korean Defense Industry Accelerates Eastern European Expansion

Hanwha Aerospace and Hanwha Systems also showcased an extensive portfolio at the MSPO 2026 International Defence Industry Exhibition, held in Kielce, Poland, from the 8th through the 11th of this month. The exhibits included the K9 and Chunmoo, multilayered air-defense systems, laser weapons, infantry fighting vehicles, unmanned ground and maritime systems, and 155 mm ammunition and propelling-charge systems. The companies also unveiled Striker-S, an unmanned surface vessel fitted with a Chunmoo launcher and designed to address naval modernization demand among Baltic states. Hanwha explicitly stated that the portfolio targeted not only Poland but also NATO member states across Eastern Europe and the Baltic region.

Other South Korean defense contractors likewise used the exhibition to signal their ambitions in Eastern Europe. Hyundai Rotem unveiled the K2PL tank, configured to meet Poland’s local requirements, for the first time. The K2PL is expected to incorporate an active protection system (APS) capable of countering anti-tank guided missiles and drones, as well as a counter-drone jammer and a remote-controlled weapon station. During the exhibition, Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) explored follow-on programs in Poland while discussing prospective projects with officials from Romania, Bulgaria and Slovenia. LIG Defense & Aerospace, meanwhile, prominently displayed guided-weapons systems designed to meet Eastern European countries’ growing demand for expanded air-defense networks.

Broader Participation in Local Programs

The South Korean defense industry’s aggressive market expansion has served as a principal driver of its growing regional influence. Hyundai Rotem’s K2 tanks are being deployed primarily with armored units in northeastern Poland and have emerged as a key platform for replacing aging Soviet-era tanks, including the PT-91. In April, Hyundai Rotem also signed an agreement with Bumar-Łabędy, a subsidiary of Poland’s state-owned defense group PGZ, covering the local production and maintenance of K2PL tanks and armored recovery vehicles. The two companies plan to hold further discussions on the local production of armored engineering vehicles and armored vehicle-launched bridges.

In the aviation sector, KAI’s FA-50 has been incorporated into the Polish Air Force. Poland signed a contract with KAI in 2022 to acquire 48 FA-50 aircraft and, after taking delivery of the initial batch, has been using them to replace aging Soviet-era fighters such as the MiG-29. In the air-defense sector, LIG D&A is pursuing participation in new procurement programs among NATO’s eastern-flank countries, centered on South Korean surface-to-air guided-weapons systems such as Cheongung-II and L-SAM. “South Korean defense contractors’ expansion into Eastern Europe is expected to extend beyond follow-on programs in Poland to neighboring countries’ new procurement projects for tanks, fighter aircraft and air-defense systems,” one market expert said. “The companies are broadening their export reach to Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia and other countries by leveraging their operational track record and maintenance and production infrastructure in Poland as a reference.”

Ukraine in Crisis

The shifting battlefield dynamics between Ukraine and Russia have been identified as a major factor behind Eastern European countries’ accelerating efforts to strengthen their defense capabilities. According to The New York Times (NYT) on the 9th, Ukraine recently asked European countries for an additional $27 billion in defense-budget support. The request came despite the European Union’s approval earlier this year of nearly $100 billion in loans for Ukraine. The renewed demand for substantial additional funding appears to reflect a widening gap in Ukraine’s air-defense network as Russian airstrikes intensify markedly. Russia has recently escalated complex saturation attacks in which it first deploys large numbers of inexpensive drones to disperse and exhaust Ukraine’s air defenses before concentrating ballistic and hypersonic missile strikes.

Donor countries are rushing to finalize additional spending commitments. Bloomberg reported on the 8th that European countries were in the final stages of coordinating a plan to use contributions to the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) to purchase a new package of Patriot interceptor missiles from the United States. PURL is a procurement mechanism under which the United States supplies American-made weapons and ammunition to Ukraine while NATO members and partner countries cover the cost. The United Kingdom has already pledged an additional $135 million to PURL, part of which is expected to finance purchases of Patriot interceptors. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney also met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Calgary, Alberta, on the 10th and agreed on a $253 million support package to help Ukraine acquire air-defense interceptor missiles.