EUROSATORY 22: The Koreans are coming

Not quite as much hype as around German tank manufacturers at Eurosatory with their Asian colleagues, who were also present and showed what's on the agenda. Hyundai Rotem is pushing into Europe. Their K2 is competing with the Leopard in Norway, in Poland, the South Koreans want to introduce the K2PL, which can be seen here in model form. Exciting also because the Poles would then be the only country in the world operating Leopard, M1, and K2 simultaneously. And it says something about Poland's relationship with Germany that they don't want to wait for Leopards.

And while there was a lot of buzz about Rheinmetall's KF51 Panther in Minecraft camouflage, a very similar concept from Hyundai was only seen in model form. The Next Generation Main Battle Tank weighs 55 tons, has a crew of 2-3, also offers a 130mm cannon, laser, and missile weaponry. The crew is encapsulated, and the tank can be manned or operated remotely. Very innovative thoughts here as well - perhaps even more innovative than the Panther, which is already on track. Hyundai's Next Gen MBT is actually based on the Polish concept study PL-01, which made headlines as the "Stealth Tank" a few years ago.

HYUNDAI ROTEM on the web