IN THE BASKET: CROATIA & SOUTH KOREA
With Europe growing wary of Trump, South Korean defence sales are skyrocketing
In the basket: 18 Hanwha K239 Chunmoo multiple-rocket launchers
Who’s buying: Croatia
Who’s selling: South Korea
Price: €544.1m
Delivery date: 2026 to 2029 Big hit: South Korea makes another arms deal with Europe
Croatia’s rocket-launcher capabilities are unquestionably due for an overhaul. The country’s army is still largely making do with the M-92 Vulkan and BM-21 Grad, which are both so ancient that they were designed and built by nations – Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, respectively – that disintegrated several decades ago.
Its choice of replacement – 18 K239 Chunmoo multiple-rocket launchers from Hanwha Aerospace – is noteworthy. The deal sees the country joining a growing list of European customers for South Korea’s defence industry. The Chunmoo alone has already been sold to Poland, Estonia and Norway.
Ask European defence ministers to explain the enthusiasm for South Korean kit and they’ll tell you – correctly – that it’s reliable, reasonably priced and delivered quickly, certainly by the dilatory standards of defence procurement. What they won’t tell you, however – at least not on the record – is that it isn’t American. The Trump administration’s attitude to its ostensible European partners is not encouraging repeat custom.
Europe is not detaching itself entirely from US manufacturers but it is increasingly hedging its bets. Croatia is demonstrating a similar change of strategy with its Chunmoo order, which follows its 2024 purchase of eight US-made Lockheed Martin Himars launchers.
Bankwatch 