Croatia is about to completely overhaul its artillery capability with a massive €435.2 million price tag attached to 18 South Korean K239 Chunmoo rocket launchers. Zagreb isn't messing around. This move marks the largest military equipment acquisition outside of their recent fighter jet purchase since the country's war for independence in the 1990s.
If you look at the wider regional arms race in the Balkans, you'll understand why this decision happened so fast. Neighboring Serbia has been beefing up its own military hardware with Israeli PULS rocket systems and eyeing long-range Chinese missiles. Croatia needed an answer, and they needed it yesterday.
Why Washington Couldn't Deliver What Zagreb Wanted
You might wonder why Croatia didn't just buy more American HIMARS systems. After all, Zagreb signed a deal for eight HIMARS launchers and nearly 400 shorter-range rockets back in late 2024.
The problem comes down to export restrictions and production bandwidth. Washington has paused exports of 300-kilometer range rockets to allies to prioritize its own military stocks. Plus, the U.S. completely bars foreign sales of its longest-range tactical variants.
South Korea's Hanwha Aerospace had no such hesitation. The Chunmoo system delivers strike ranges from 30 kilometers all the way past 300 kilometers using heavy ballistic options. When you want deep-strike deterrence and Washington says your desired range is off-limits, you look elsewhere. Seoul gladly stepped into that void.
What Makes the Chunmoo Launcher Different
The K239 Chunmoo operates on a dual-pod design that sets it apart from standard single-pod launchers like HIMARS. While a HIMARS vehicle carries a single pod of six rockets, a Chunmoo launcher holds two separate pods simultaneously.
You can mix and match calibers without swapping out hardware. A crew can fire guided 239mm rockets from one side and heavier 280mm or massive 600mm ballistic rockets from the other. That flexibility changes how artillery units handle diverse battlefield threats on the fly.
Delivery timelines also played a massive role in this contract. Croatia expects about 85 percent of the systems to arrive by 2028. For major defense acquisitions, that speed is lightning-fast. Defense Minister Ivan Anušić managed to secure a deal that includes logistics support and six weeks of crew training. Operating all 18 launchers will only require around 100 soldiers, matching the manpower footprint of their HIMARS batteries.
The Regional Buildup Continues
Croatia isn't alone in turning to South Korea for heavy rocket artillery. Poland started this European trend by ordering hundreds of Chunmoo launchers along with local manufacturing deals. Norway and Estonia followed suit for similar reasons.
President Zoran Milanović made no secret of the strategic motivation behind these moves, pointing directly at regional defense balances. Modernizing away from Soviet-era Vulkan and Grad launchers that max out at a paltry 20 kilometers was long overdue. Thirty-year-old artillery cannot survive modern counter-battery radar and drone detection.
Even with this multi-hundred-million-euro contract signed, Zagreb's shopping list remains unfinished. Defense planners still need to lock down a medium-range air defense network and two new corvettes. Those upcoming contracts will push national defense spending even higher as Croatia cements its military posture for the coming decade.
