Croatia Buys 18 Chunmoo Rocket Systems for 435 Million Euros
Zagreb's government approves the country's largest military package since the Rafale purchase, with upgrades to all 12 fighter jets and modernized radar and communications systems.
Croatia’s government, at a session that opened today at 11 a.m. at the National and University Library in Zagreb, approved the country’s largest military investment package since the purchase of Rafale fighter jets. For Serbia, which shares a border and airspace over Vojvodina with Croatia, any significant strengthening of a neighbor’s defense capabilities falls into the part of the regional security picture that gets watched regardless of how immediate the threat is, since it shifts a balance of power that Belgrade’s own Ministry of Defense factors into its own procurement plans.
The centerpiece of the package is the purchase of 18 South Korean long range multiple rocket launch systems, the K239 Chunmoo, made by Hanwha Aerospace. The deal is worth 435.2 million euros excluding value added tax, and the rockets the system fires have a range of 30 to over 300 kilometers. Most of the systems are due for delivery by 2028, with the rest expected by 2029 at the latest. The Croatian side is set to sign the contract with Hanwha Aerospace on September 8.
Croatia had already ordered American HIMARS rocket systems, with delivery expected in 2028, so fielding both systems in parallel will give Zagreb’s military double the long range strike capacity. Military literature routinely compares the Chunmoo to the HIMARS, since both share the concept of a self propelled launcher firing guided rockets of varying range.
The second major part of the package concerns the Croatian air force. The government decided to upgrade all 12 Rafale jets from the F3R standard to F4, fulfilling a letter of intent signed in Paris a year ago. The upgrade, worth 88.5 million euros excluding value added tax, has been entrusted to French manufacturer Dassault Aviation, with Zagreb taking on the financial obligations gradually between 2027 and 2032. The jets will receive passive sensors for detecting missile launches and self protection systems that, unlike radar, do not emit their own signal, making it harder for an adversary to detect the aircraft in the first place.
The same session also reviewed the purchase of new anti armor weapons, with the financial commitments due in 2029, along with the continuation of radar system modernization, planned for 2027. Also on the table is an upgrade to the air force’s combat communications system between 2027 and 2030, while the construction of aircraft maintenance hangars at Zemunik air base is set to bring financial obligations in 2027 and 2028.
According to figures the government presented at the session, this is Croatia’s largest military procurement since the Rafale purchase, contracted a few years earlier. The combined value of the two largest items alone, the Chunmoo systems and the Rafale upgrade, tops half a billion euros, not counting the other defense decisions reviewed at the same session.
For the region, Serbia included, Zagreb’s move fits a broader trend of growing military budgets along NATO’s eastern flank since the war in Ukraine began. Croatia, alongside Poland and the Baltic states, is among the countries that have increased long range weapons procurement the most over the past two years. Whether the contract with Hanwha Aerospace is actually signed on September 8, as Zagreb’s government has announced, and whether the first Chunmoo systems arrive by the stated 2028 deadline, are questions only the next steps of this deal will answer.
