After the outbreak of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Polish Ministry of Defence reacted by increasing the military budget to all-time heights in 2024. The plans for modernising the military include the purchase of new attack helicopters, tanks and fighter jets and further further increase in the number of units of professional soldiers.

The new contracts for military equipment are worth together over PLN 162 billion (approx. £31,428) in 2024, with around PLN 110 billion (approx. £21,34 billion) planned to be spent for foreign equipment industries and more than PLN 50 billion (approx. £9,7 billion) to domestic military industry.

The most expensive single contract that was signed will bring Poland 96 attack helicopters AH-64E Apache. The cost of the new fleet stands at PLN 40 billion (approx. £7,76 billion), which will make Poland the second-largest operator of these helicopters after the U.S.

The big contracts include the integration of the IBCS system for air and missile defence, which shall cost Poland PLN 10 billion (approx. £1,94 billion).

The country also signed a contract to acquire the Barbara aerostats for PLN 4 billion (approx. £776 million) and the MQ-9B SkyGuardian system for PLN 1.2 billion (approx. £232,8 billion).

The military equipment acquisition contracts in Poland are executed under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) framework, which includes government-to-government agreements between Poland and the U.S. that remain the country’s greatest military equipment supplier.

According to the draft defence budget legislation for 2025 published in September, the country will spend some PLN 124.302 billion (approx. £24,113 billion) which will represent 3.1 per cent of GDP. Additional funds amounting to PLN 14.021 billion (approx. £2,720 billion) are to be transferred to the Armed Forces Support Fund in 2025.

Source: Polskie Radio

Photo:@RyszardJonski

Tomasz Modrzejewski