Hanwha Aerospace breaks ground on Chunmoo missile plant in Poland
Lee Boo-hwan, Hanwha Aerospace’s chief executive, speaks during a groundbreaking ceremony for a plant that will be run by Hanwha WB Advanced System in Gorzow Wielkopolski, western Poland, Thursday. Courtesy of Hanwha Aerospace
Hanwha Aerospace has started building a factory in Poland to make guided missiles for its Chunmoo multiple rocket launcher, the company said Thursday. The plant takes its defense partnership with Poland beyond exports and into local production.
The Korean defense firm held a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday in Gorzow Wielkopolski, western Poland, for a plant that will be run by Hanwha WB Advanced Systems, its joint venture with Polish defense company WB Group. It will be Hanwha Aerospace’s first guided missile production facility outside Korea. About 250 government and industry officials from both countries attended.
The plant will sit on a site of about 1.16 million square meters and is set to be completed in 2028. It will produce the CGR-080, a missile with a range of about 80 kilometers, for the Homar-K, the Polish version of the truck-mounted Chunmoo. Once technology transfer, testing and certification are complete, the venture plans to begin initial production in late 2029 and full-scale production in 2030.
The project is expected to create more than 200 jobs and to buy parts and materials from local suppliers.
Hanwha Aerospace and WB Group agreed to set up the joint venture in September 2025. Hanwha holds 51 percent, and WB Group’s subsidiary WB Electronics holds 49 percent. The partners later signed a contract with Poland’s Armament Agency to produce and supply the missiles locally. Hanwha will transfer production technology and know-how to the venture under a licensing agreement.
The company said it may later produce missiles of other ranges in Poland, depending on what the Polish military needs, and aims to make the country its guided missile hub for Europe.
“This groundbreaking is an important first step in turning Korea’s advanced guided missile technology into Poland’s own production capability,” the head of the joint venture said.
Lee Boo-hwan, Hanwha Aerospace’s chief executive, called Poland “a key strategic partner with which we have built trust through exports of K9 self-propelled howitzers and Chunmoo multiple rocket launchers.”
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.