Poland’s HIMARS and Chunmoo Rocket Artillery, Explained

Poland is building the largest rocket artillery force in Europe by running two full-scale programmes side by side: Homar-A, based on the American M142 HIMARS, and Homar-K, based on the South Korean K239 Chunmoo. Framework agreements cover up to 486 Homar-A launchers assembled in Poland with Lockheed Martin, and up to 288 Homar-K launchers built with Hanwha Aerospace, with first Homar-A deliveries due in 2026 and a Polish-built guided rocket entering production from the end of the decade.

Why this matters

Rocket artillery has become the most watched capability gap in European land forces since 2022. Ukraine’s use of HIMARS against logistics and command targets showed what a mobile, precision-guided multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) can do, and most European armies had let their Cold War-era MLRS fleets shrink to a handful of batteries. Poland, which borders both Russia and Belarus, decided not to pick one Western supplier and wait. It placed parallel orders with the United States and South Korea, then used both contracts to pull a domestic guided-rocket industry into existence. The result, once deliveries catch up with the paperwork, is intended to be a rocket artillery corps larger than that of any other NATO member in Europe.

European context

Poland’s approach has set the pattern that other European buyers are now following. Romania holds the continent’s largest HIMARS fleet currently in US congressional approval, with 54 launchers cleared in September 2026. The Netherlands has a pending US approval for 20 launchers, and Sweden signed for just over ten in September 2026, becoming the programme’s 13th global operator. On the Korean side, Hanwha’s K239 Chunmoo has gone from a single customer in 2022 to four in Europe: Poland, Estonia, Norway and, most recently, Croatia in September 2026. No other European country is running both supply chains at the scale Poland is, which is why its combined order book is the reference point for the rest of the continent’s rocket artillery build-up.

Programme	Base system	Supplier	Launchers ordered	Deliveries
Homar-A	M142 HIMARS	Lockheed Martin (US)	Up to 486 (framework)	From 2026
Homar-K	K239 Chunmoo	Hanwha Aerospace (ROK)	Up to 288 (framework); 218 + 72 contracted	2023–2029

The systems: HIMARS and Chunmoo on a Polish chassis

Both Polish variants are built on the same idea: take a proven foreign launcher and marry it to Polish-made running gear and electronics rather than import a complete foreign vehicle. Homar-A pairs the HIMARS launcher module — six-round for guided GMLRS rockets out to roughly 70–80 km, or a single ATACMS-class missile out to around 300 km — with a Polish Jelcz 6×6 truck chassis. Homar-K does the same with the K239 Chunmoo launcher, which carries two pods able to take a mix of 239 mm CGR-080 guided rockets (around 80 km) or a longer-range ballistic round (reported out to roughly 290 km), again on a Jelcz chassis, with Polish WB Electronics TOPAZ fire-control and battle-management systems integrated into the vehicle.

Neither system is a Polish design from the ground up. What is Polish is the truck, the C2 and communications fit, and, from the end of the decade, a growing share of the ammunition. That is a deliberate trade-off: Poland accepted slower initial deliveries in exchange for assembly lines and, eventually, rocket production on its own soil.

	Homar-A (HIMARS)	Homar-K (Chunmoo)
Guided rocket range	~70–80 km (GMLRS)	~80 km (CGR-080)
Long-range round	ATACMS-class, ~300 km	Ballistic round, reported ~290 km
Launcher pods	1 x 6-round pod	2 x pods, mixed loadout
Chassis	Jelcz 6×6	Jelcz 6×6
Fire control	US AFATDS-linked	WB Electronics TOPAZ

Countries and operators

Poland is the only country committed to both families at this scale. Its order book, and the wider European picture for each system, looks like this.

Country	System	Quantity	Status
Poland	Homar-A (HIMARS)	Up to 486 (framework, Sept 2023)	CONTRACTED
Poland	Homar-K (Chunmoo)	218 + 72 launchers contracted; up to 288 framework	DELIVERED (first 18, 2023) / CONTRACTED (remainder)
Romania	HIMARS	54	ORDERED (US Congress notification, Sept 2026)
Netherlands	HIMARS	20	ORDERED (US FMS approval pending)
Sweden	HIMARS	10+	ORDERED (Sept 2026)
Estonia	Chunmoo	9 (6 + 3 follow-on)	ORDERED, deliveries from H2 2027
Norway	Chunmoo	16	ORDERED, deliveries 2028–2031
Croatia	Chunmoo	18	CONTRACTED, Sept 2026

Industrial players

Four industrial groups sit behind the two Polish programmes:

Lockheed Martin (United States) — supplies the HIMARS launcher module and GMLRS/ATACMS-family ammunition technology for Homar-A, and is the US government’s prime contact for the Foreign Military Sales cases behind Romania’s, the Netherlands’ and Sweden’s HIMARS orders.
Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa (PGZ), Huta Stalowa Wola (HSW), WZU and MESKO (Poland) — the state-owned defence group and its subsidiaries responsible for integrating the HIMARS module onto the Jelcz chassis and, over time, building GMLRS-family ammunition under licence in Poland.
Hanwha Aerospace (South Korea) — builds the K239 Chunmoo launcher and its CGR-080 and longer-range rockets, and is Poland’s, Estonia’s, Norway’s and Croatia’s common supplier for the Chunmoo family.
WB Electronics / WB Group (Poland) — supplies the TOPAZ fire-control and battle-management suite fitted to Homar-K, and holds 49% of the joint venture with Hanwha Aerospace (51%) building the new CGR-080 rocket plant.

Jelcz, the Polish military truck maker, supplies the 6×6 chassis common to both launcher families, giving Poland a shared logistics and maintenance base across two otherwise unrelated weapon systems. Rocket artillery is only one strand of Poland’s wider artillery rearmament, which also includes the South Korean K9 Thunder self-propelled howitzer, bought from the same supplier base around the same time.

Procurement status

Date	Contract	Scope	Reported value
19 Oct 2022	Chunmoo framework agreement	Up to 288 Homar-K launchers	Not disclosed
4 Nov 2022	Chunmoo first executive contract	218 launchers, logistics, munitions stockpile	~US$3.55bn
11 Sept 2023	Homar-A framework agreement	Up to 486 launchers assembled in Poland	Not disclosed
Apr 2024	Chunmoo second executive contract	72 more launchers	~US$1.67bn (2.3tn won)
29 Dec 2025	Homar-K munitions localisation	10,000+ CGR-080 rockets, new Polish plant	~PLN 14bn (~€3.3bn)

The first 18 Chunmoo launchers reached Polish units in 2023, with the rest of the 218-launcher first contract following through 2027. Homar-A deliveries were pushed back from an earlier 2025 target and are now due to begin in 2026, with Lockheed Martin and PGZ/HSW integrating US-built launcher modules onto Jelcz trucks under the first executive contract before full in-Poland assembly follows under later contracts.

Production capacity

Capacity is the limiting factor on both sides. HIMARS launcher modules and GMLRS rockets are built in the United States against a global order book that now includes Poland, Romania, the Netherlands, Sweden, Ukraine and others, so Poland’s 486-launcher framework will be delivered over years, not in one batch; exact annual rates for the Polish line have not been disclosed. On the Korean side, Hanwha has scaled Chunmoo production specifically to serve its new European customers, and the December 2025 agreement with WB Electronics is designed to move part of the rocket, not just the launcher, onto Polish soil: construction work on the CGR-080 plant at Gorzów Wielkopolski began on 2 July 2026, with assembly of the first munitions expected from 2029 and fully Polish-made rounds from 2030. Poland’s defence ministry has said more than 100 components and the transport-launch containers will eventually be made domestically, which would also let Poland supply rockets to other Chunmoo operators such as Estonia and Norway. The same capacity constraint runs across Europe’s wider ammunition base: propellant and explosive-filler supply, the kind of work handled by firms such as Nammo, is as often the limiting factor as launcher assembly itself.

Competing systems

Homar-A and Homar-K are not really competitors inside Poland; they are deliberately parallel programmes covering the same mission. Each has a different trade-off:

Combat record and interoperability: HIMARS has an extensive combat history in Ukraine and deep integration with US and NATO fire-control networks, which matters for a force that trains and may fight alongside US units.
Delivery speed and localisation terms: Poland turned to Hanwha partly because Chunmoo could be delivered faster than competing Western options at the time, and because Seoul offered deeper technology transfer, including eventual rocket production in Poland.
Cost per launcher: reported unit costs for the Chunmoo contracts have generally come in below comparable HIMARS packages, though direct comparison is complicated by differing scopes (munitions stockpiles, training and support bundled in varying amounts across the contracts).
Industrial return: Homar-K’s munitions localisation deal goes further than anything agreed so far for Homar-A, giving Poland a controlling stake, through WB Electronics, in a European rocket-production joint venture.

Outside Poland, the EuroPULS launcher from KNDS, built on a Boxer chassis and already ordered by Germany’s Bundeswehr, is the main Western European-designed alternative pursuing some of the same export market as HIMARS and Chunmoo, though it has not yet secured an order on the scale of Poland’s two programmes.

Türkiye and other alternatives

Turkey’s Roketsan builds its own guided rocket artillery family, the TRG-300 Kaplan (reported range 20–120 km depending on block) and the shorter-range TRLG-230, both fired from Turkish-made launcher vehicles. Confirmed operators are outside the EU/NATO-Europe market this article covers — Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates and Libya, according to open-source reporting, alongside deliveries to Ukraine. No European NATO member has yet ordered a Roketsan rocket artillery system; Poland’s choice came down to the US and South Korean options described above. Readers wanting the full technical breakdown of the Turkish system can see Envanter Medya’s TRG-300 Kaplan füzesi explainer (in Turkish).

What changes next

Three things to watch over the next two years: whether Homar-A’s first 2026 deliveries hold to schedule after the earlier slip from 2025; whether construction at the Gorzów CGR-080 plant stays on track for assembly to start in 2029; and whether Estonia, Norway or Croatia place follow-on Chunmoo orders that could eventually be filled, in part, from Polish-made rounds rather than South Korea alone. Poland’s defence ministry has also signalled further rocket-artillery purchases are possible as its 27 planned Homar-A and Homar-K fire battalions are stood up.

FAQ

How many rocket launchers has Poland ordered in total?
Across both programmes, Poland’s framework agreements cover up to 486 Homar-A (HIMARS-based) launchers and up to 288 Homar-K (Chunmoo-based) launchers. Not all of these have been placed on firm executive contracts yet; 218 plus 72 Chunmoo launchers and an unspecified share of the Homar-A framework are under contract as of late 2026.

What is the difference between Homar-A and Homar-K?
Homar-A uses the US Lockheed Martin M142 HIMARS launcher module; Homar-K uses the South Korean Hanwha K239 Chunmoo launcher. Both are fitted to Polish Jelcz 6×6 trucks, but they use different ammunition families and fire-control systems and are supplied under separate contracts.

Is Poland building its own rocket artillery ammunition?
From the end of the decade, yes, for the Homar-K family. A December 2025 agreement between Hanwha Aerospace and Poland’s WB Electronics set up a joint venture to build CGR-080 guided rockets at a new plant in Gorzów Wielkopolski, with assembly due to start in 2029 and fully Polish-made rounds from 2030.

Why did Poland buy two different rocket artillery systems instead of one?
Officials have said speed and industrial terms both mattered: Hanwha could offer faster delivery and deeper technology transfer when Poland signed the Chunmoo deal in 2022, while the HIMARS-based Homar-A gives Poland a launcher that is combat-proven and tightly integrated with US and NATO fire-control systems. Running both avoided relying on a single supply chain while Ukraine’s war underlined how quickly rocket artillery could be needed.

Which other European countries operate or have ordered HIMARS or Chunmoo?
On HIMARS, Romania (54 launchers), the Netherlands (20) and Sweden (10+) have ordered or had orders approved as of September 2026. On Chunmoo, Estonia (9), Norway (16) and Croatia (18) have all ordered the system, making Poland one of four European Chunmoo customers.

How far can Poland’s new rocket artillery reach?
Publicly disclosed ranges are around 70–80 km for GMLRS-type and CGR-080 guided rockets, and around 290–300 km for the longer-range ballistic rounds associated with each launcher family. These are manufacturer and government-disclosed figures; neither system’s precise targeting or employment details are public.

Has the Homar-A delivery schedule slipped?
Yes. Deliveries were originally expected to begin around 2025 and are now scheduled to start in 2026, which Polish officials have attributed to the time needed to set up Jelcz-based assembly and integrate US-supplied launcher modules.