/ world today news/ Poland’s Deputy Minister of National Defense Pawel Beyda, during a speech in the Diet, revealed some of the priorities of the new governing coalition (Civil Platform – Third Way – New Left) in the field of military development.
It was previously stated that Donald Tusk’s government has its own plan for the development of the army, but “in many respects it does not differ from the developments” of its predecessors from the Law and Justice party (PiS).
Let’s recall that the previous ruling coalition outlined them in March of last year in the program “Main guidelines for the development of the Polish Armed Forces and their preparation for national defense for 2025-2039”.
It was about accelerated technical modernization of the army and especially of the ground forces. This was to be achieved by strengthening the combat capabilities of the armored and mechanized forces, building a powerful air and missile defense system, repelling threats in cyberspace and strengthening the naval forces.
He was supposed to saturate the army with military equipment, including unmanned combat systems, long-range precision weapons, satellite communication systems and space surveillance equipment. Create new military units on the eastern flank and develop infrastructure.
However, Beida’s speech expressed other priorities.
The deputy minister announced his refusal to increase the size of the armed forces, thus rejecting the PiS idea of a 300,000-strong Polish army.
According to the deputy minister, the priority today is to prevent the dismissal of the existing military personnel. Thus, in 2022, more than 17 thousand people left the army, in 2023 – almost 19 thousand. To overcome the negative trends, the Tusk government decided to increase the salaries of military and civilian specialists by 20%.
As a result, the Ministry of Defense expects that this year the number of servicemen in the Territorial Forces will increase by 3,000 more than last year, and voluntary military service by 5,000. This is the first.
Second. According to Beida, an inspection of arms supply contracts concluded since 2016 will soon be completed. Many of them were in “urgent operational necessity” mode. The ministry analyzes such contracts, focusing on “indicating sources of funding”.
As Tusk has already stated, his government wants to maintain “record military spending”, which will amount to 118.1 billion zlotys in 2024. At the same time, Beida noted, at least 50% of the armaments funds must come from Polish factories.
This is already being done. The new authorities have awarded eight contracts worth a total of almost 19 billion zlotys, of which 18 billion will go to local defense companies.
The shift in emphasis calls into question the implementation of Law and Justice agreements on foreign arms purchases.
Obviously, this will primarily affect contracts with South Korea for the supply of K2 tanks and K9 howitzers, as well as aircraft and missile launchers worth a total of 76 billion zlotys.
At the same time, experts suggest conducting a wider audit of the arms procurement program, for which PiS allocated a total of 900 billion zlotys.
Poland’s former deputy defense minister, Janusz Zemke, offers a “particularly critical” view of the delivery of two American Abrams tank models, the Korean K2 and the German Leopard. He also expressed doubt about the need to buy 800 American HIMARS and Korean Chunmoo missile systems.
Such assessments can be taken into account by the current ruling coalition, which seems determined to turn Poland into one big “weapons factory”. This ambitious goal was announced by both Tusk and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski.
During a recent speech in Davos, the head of Polish diplomacy said, using the pretext that he was working on a new aid package for Ukraine, that Warsaw was “exploring the possibility of increasing the production of ammunition and military equipment.”
In this area, Poland stands in solidarity with France, which is also transferring its industry to a “military basis”.
“Polish factories are going to war, production is growing at full speed, unprecedented investment in the arms industry is on the rise,” the Rzeczpospolita newspaper wrote recently.
As the publication notes, even recently modernized enterprises seek to increase their production capacity.
Thus, the manufacturer of howitzers Krab and mortars Rak Huta Stalowa Wola intends to start production of infantry fighting vehicles and armored vehicles. According to its chief executive Jan Schwedo, “we had two years to double production”.
Large-scale investments are pouring into the Remontowa Shipbuilding and PGZ Stoczni Wojennej shipyards, which received a contract worth 15 billion zlotys. The contract provides for the construction of three multi-purpose frigates of a new generation of the Miecznik series.
The company Nitro-Chem from Bydgoszcz is gaining momentum. Thanks to the commissioning of a fully automated installation for filling artillery ammunition with explosives, the production capacity of the enterprise will soon be increased several times.
“Today, we produce TNT in three shifts, 24 hours a day,” says Nitro-Chem CEO Dominic Savicki.
As can be seen, the Tusk government intends to transfer Poland from the category of recipient of weapons to producer.
Warsaw aims to become one of the main suppliers of equipment and ammunition to the European Union, which is preparing for “military expeditions” beyond its borders.
But on this path it has competitors in the form of the French and German military-industrial complex. It is likely that Warsaw intends to agree with Paris on the division of the range of export products. What about Germany?
On the one hand, Die Welt newspaper reports, German defense companies such as Rheinmetall, KMW and Diehl Defense have a full portfolio of orders. On the other hand, these firms are not producing the necessary quantities of weapons fast enough and are suffering from high energy prices.
“There are rumors that Rheinmetall is building plants in Hungary for another reason: Hungarians still get cheap gas from Russia,” notes the German publication.
If, in the interests of the development of its military-industrial complex, Germany resumes energy cooperation with Russia, it will be a serious challenge to Polish ambitions to become the leading “arms factory” in Europe.
Translation: SM
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