Romania's transport infrastructure, especially roads and highways, has a load capacity of up to 50 tons, and this has become a problem in the context of the government's plans to purchase South Korean K2 Black Panther tanks, which have a combat weight of 55 tons.
For a reminder, in summer 2024, South Korea offered Romanian partners to combine the purchase of tanks with investments in transport infrastructure. Now, the public discourse in Romania has returned to this topic as the acquisition was supposed to take place in 2025. Still, the question remains in what form this road upgrade should be implemented, discussed in an article from Defense Romania.
Read more: South Korea is Ready to Repair Romanian Roads to Open Way for K2 Tank Supplies
The journalists propose that the purchase of K2 tanks is combined with investments by the South Korean company Hyundai Rotem in the modernization of the port of Constanța. Noteworthy, they don't dive into the specifics of the tank purchase itself, instead focusing on the infrastructure component of the potential agreement.
The experts point out that Hyundai, as a manufacturer of both military (K2 tanks) and civilian railway equipment, like electric trains or trams — and has even created its own remotely controlled device for moving cargo in ports — can offer the expertise needed for this overhaul.
The background of this suggestion is that in 2024, the Romanian government announced plans to modernize the port in Constanța, including building a new terminal there. Therefore, the journalists argue, it would be logical for one and the same corporation (i.e. Hyundai) to simultaneously act as a supplier of tanks and invest in the development of port infrastructure.
At first glance, the tanks plus civilian infrastructure two-in-one package deal sounds exotic but is, in fact, quite feasible in practice. Here we can recall an example where Serbia sold Nora B52 self-propelled guns to Azerbaijan and in return received investments in its transport sector, or South Korea's delivery of new K2 tanks and K9 self-propelled guns to Poland in December 2022 on the same ship that also brought a batch of trams for Warsaw city.
However, the question is how the "tanks + infrastructure" offer will be implemented in practice and whether the roads will be modernized in the rest of the country as well to withstand the transfers of 55-ton K2s.
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