At the International Defence Industry Exhibition inaugurated in Poland, Warsaw announced the signing of numerous arms contracts worth more than 460 million euros. Its army is the largest in Europe, ahead of France and Germany.
Warsaw announced on Tuesday the signing of new military contracts worth more than 460 million euros during a major international defense industry exhibition in Kielce, Poland.
“The Polish government (…) will sign contracts worth almost two billion zlotys (467 million euros),” Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz told reporters.
On Wednesday, Poland is to sign “a huge contract worth nearly one billion one hundred million zlotys with a Spanish group for radio reconnaissance, protection and security systems around airports,” said Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, without giving further details. Three agreements signed on Tuesday concern communications systems, radiation detection and transport logistics.
In mid-August, Warsaw signed an agreement with the American company Boeing for the purchase of 96 Apache combat helicopters for 9.14 billion euros, which will make Poland the largest user of these aircraft in the world after the United States. The first Apaches will be delivered in 2028.
In addition to the supply of helicopters, the agreement includes a logistics component, which provides for the supply of maintenance equipment, technical and training support, ammunition and spare parts. The agreement “changes the face of the Polish army’s operations and complements” previous purchases, Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said in August when announcing the contract.
NATO’s third military force
Warsaw also recently signed a contract worth 1.13 billion euros for the production of 48 Patriot anti-aircraft missile launchers, and another for the purchase of hundreds of AIM-120C AMRAAM air-to-air missiles, worth 783 million euros.
The Kielce Arms Fair, which claims a prominent place among similar events on a regional or even “global” scale, this year brings together 769 exhibitors, manufacturers and distributors of arms, as well as experts and national officials from all over the world, including Australia, the United States and Great Britain.
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Warsaw, a NATO member and staunch ally of war-torn neighbor Ukraine, currently spends about 4 percent of its GDP on defense, compared with the 2 percent required by NATO. Next year, the government wants to allocate 4.7 percent of GDP, a record figure of about 186 billion zlotys.
The Polish professional army, which is undergoing a complete modernisation process, has more than 200,000 soldiers, making it the third largest force in NATO after the United States and Turkey and the most powerful in the European Union, ahead of France and Germany.
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