On Wednesday, May 13, 2026, the 3rd Regional Logistics Base from Kraków (3. RBLog) published information on the conclusion of a contract worth 4,015,510 PLN gross with Warsaw-based Hanwha Aerospace Europe, the regional office of South Korea’s Hanwha Aerospace, for the supply of technical materiel, parts, and special tools for maintenance and repair work on 40 mm K4 AGL automatic grenade launchers.
Photo: D. Wielgus via 6. BPD/X
The order was finalized through a negotiated procedure without prior publication of a contract notice. Earlier, two unsuccessful attempts had been made to select a contractor through a competitive restricted tender procedure, from April 7 to 15, 2025, and from November 7, 2025, to February 11, 2026. In each case, the tenders were canceled due to a lack of bids.
“In the previously conducted restricted tender procedure in the fields of defense and security (Case No. 150/2025/D-OiB), no bid was submitted by the deadline for submission of bids. Therefore, pursuant to Article 415(2)(7) of the Public Procurement Law, the contracting authority invited Hanwha Aerospace Europe Sp. z o.o. to participate in negotiations,” the justification reads.
The contract with Hanwha Aerospace Europe will be performed in Poland over a period of nine months from the date of its conclusion, April 23 this year, but no later than November 30, 2026.
AGL4 in the Polish Armed Forces
On July 4, 2023, K4 AGLs were presented for the first time as part of the armament of the 18th Bielsko-Biała Airborne Battalion, which is part of the 6th Airborne Brigade.
Information about the purchase of the grenade launchers appeared on September 25, 2022, when the technology policy department of South Korea’s military procurement agency, DAPA (Defense Acquisition Program Administration), was said to have issued alleged approval to the national research institute of the government-run Agency for Defense Development (ADD) for the transfer of K4 production technology to Poland. ADD owns the production rights to this weapon.
However, a day later, on September 26, 2022, the then-spokesperson for the Armament Agency, Lt. Col. Krzysztof Płatek, said that Poland had not purchased a production license for this weapon, but had instead placed an emergency order for several hundred K4 grenade launchers, along with half a million rounds of ammunition, for a dozen or so million U.S. dollars. The contract, worth around 100 million PLN, was said to have been concluded several weeks earlier, with deliveries to take place within a few months.
Developed from 1989 to 1991 and introduced into service in 1993, the K4 automatic grenade launcher is fed with 40 mm x 53SR HV (High Velocity) ammunition, meeting the NATO standard. It weighs 34.4 kg and has a theoretical rate of fire of 325 rounds per minute, with an effective range of up to 1.5 km. If required for night operations, the launcher can be equipped with a KAN/TVS-5 night-vision sight. It is also used by the South Korean Armed Forces, specifically the Republic of Korea Marine Corps (Daehanminguk Haebyeongdae), as well as by the armed forces of Iraq, Libya, Mexico, and Singapore.