Quote:
Originally Posted by kato13
Would be nice if that license was (possibly secretly) renewed. Know it will take some time to spool up but it would allow the Koreans to spare more of their current stocks (I have read that 288 were going to Poland early next year.)
Thanks for the info. Our denizens never disappoint me when I am looking for details on these types of subjects.
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Congress killed the last renewal attempt in 2015, I believe because of the desire to remain in line with the international community regarding cluster munitions even if we wouldn't ratify the actual treaty about them.
The 288 systems being sold to Poland are K239 Chunmoo launchers for delivery between 2023 and 2027. They're a heavy truck-based launcher with 2 rocket pods, so think an M270-sized HIMARS. Each pod can carry one of a set of payloads:
20x131mm rocket (unguided, 36km range)
6xKM26A2 (unguided, 45km range)
6x239mm rocket (guided, 80km range)
Also in development are a 2x400mm rocket pod (guided, 200+ km range) and a single tactical ballistic missile pod (guided, 290km range). Both of these were publicly announced this year as development projects, but I don't know how far along they are (e.g. was development work done before they were announced?). Poland is buying the 239mm rockets and the tactical ballistic missiles, with total numbers across the two ammunition types being reported as 23,000. I haven't seen it split out into how many of each type are being acquired. The Polish Chunmoo will be on a locally-manufactured truck chassis, a Jelcz 8x8, so they're getting at least some local industrial production out of the purchase.
There's not a whole lot of niche space for KM26A2 in that set of pods. The 131mm rockets have 80% of the range and enough numbers that they can saturate a target at least as well as the KM26A2, while the 239mm rocket has as much ammunition, nearly double the range, and is guided like GMLRS, as well as being in current production.