by Giuseppe Gagliano –
NATO enlargement and the current Russo-Ukrainian war are increasingly giving Poland a central role, as evidenced by the fact that Washington and Warsaw are currently negotiating offset agreements on a deal to purchase US military equipment. In order to implement this agreement, which is of great strategic importance, Poland set up a team led by General Artur Kuptel: the Polish government commissioned 96 AH-64E Apache helicopters from Boeing on 12 September, a purchase which is part of a broader program to modernize the arsenal, and which will make Poland one of the largest users of the Apache in the world.
However, Poland also wants to acquire Patriot missiles and other anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense systems, to create a multi-layered defense deployment. Negotiations originally started in 2017, but material quantities have increased since the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
It is therefore not surprising that the United States, with the consent of Poland, intends to create ever more sophisticated military-industrial infrastructures on Polish soil. Specifically, the United States hopes for the creation of a surface-to-air and air-to-air missile factory, as an anti-Russian deterrent. From a political point of view, all this will only exacerbate tensions with Russia of course.
Furthermore, to state that war is a business for the military industry may seem trivial, but it is always better to remember this, especially when one thinks of the fact that Ukraine is also interested in the Apaches. Not only that, but in recent weeks the Ukrainian political and military authorities have underlined the technological importance of having increasingly sophisticated attack helicopters. In fact, the GUR, the military intelligence service, has praised the technical merits and mastery of the Black Hawk helicopter in a video posted on its YouTube channel.
