Poland signed a $4 billion loan under the United States’ Foreign Military Financing program that will help finance the transformation of its armed forces, the Polish defence minister said on Thursday.
“This is another proof of enormous trust and strong alliance between Poland and the United States of America,” Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz posted on X.
Kosiniak-Kamysz said that in total the United States has provided Poland with over $11 billion to finance armament programs, including Patriot air defence systems and Apache helicopters.
Spurred by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Poland became NATO’s top spender in terms of the proportion of its national wealth devoted to defence. Warsaw said it will spend 4.1% of gross domestic product on defense in 2024 with a pledge to increase this to 4.7% in 2025.
Poland, in August, signed a contract with the U.S. to buy 96 AH-64E Apache attack helicopters as it bolsters its armed forces following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Under the deal with the U.S. government announced by Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, the helicopters will provide new combat capabilities in terms of target engagement and reconnaissance, and will replace Poland’s post-Soviet Mi-24 helicopters.
Poland is also ramping up production of 155 mm artillery rounds in the hope of ensuring sufficient supplies if Russia attacked NATO, a senior Polish official has stated. Some NATO officials say that the Kremlin might militarily be ready to attack NATO countries in five to eight years’ time, once it has rebuilt its forces after the conflict in Ukraine. Moscow has regularly dismissed Western suggestions that it might consider an attack on NATO.
Demand for 155 mm artillery rounds has soared in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Allies’ supplies for their own defence have been run down as they have rushed shells to Kyiv.
Like many of its allies, Poland has sent some of its own stock of 155s to Ukraine. It lacks the capacity to produce the rounds from scratch and, instead, is assembling them from purchased components.
Poland and many other European nations are forced to reinvest in their armed forces after many years of neglect. The Russian special military operations in Ukraine has forced many countries to re-prioritise their budgetary allocations.
Team Bharatshakti
(With inputs from Reuters)
