Poland places orders for $23.8B in weapons purchases

By Ahmet Gencturk

ATHENS (AA) - Poland has placed a purchase order for nearly $24 billion in weapons to increase security amid regional tensions following a Russia-Ukraine war, with Warsaw openly supporting Kyiv and its neighbor Belarus siding with Moscow.

Warsaw has ordered a massive new armament package worth 100 billion Polish zloty (approximately $23.8 billion), local media reported on Tuesday.

The package was signed by Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak at the 31st International Defense Industry Exhibition in the southern city of Kielce and includes air-defense systems, anti-ship missile systems, and drones, the state-run PAP news agency reported.

It added that 48 new batteries of the US-made Patriot medium-range air defense system, components for the Narew short-range air defense system, equipment for two new Naval Rocket Units, and some 1,700 Polish-made FlyEye observation drones to be purchased.

During the signing ceremony, Blaszczak emphasized that the country is systematically and successfully building a multi-layered system of anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense.

Commenting on the package, President Andrzej Duda said that the new military equipment ordered would help “ensure the security of Poland and all its residents, as well as our neighbors and the whole eastern flank of the NATO alliance.”

Poland’s state-of-the-art air defense system will be the most advanced in Europe, he remarked.

On Aug. 22, the US approved the sale of 96 AH-64E Apache helicopters and related equipment to Poland for an estimated $12 billion.

A week prior to the US approval, Warsaw signed three separate deals to purchase hundreds of armored vehicles for its land forces.

In recent years, the country signed deals with South Korea and the US to purchase hundreds of tanks and multiple rocket launchers, with the goal of forming Poland one of Europe's strongest armies.