While Poland makes headlines globally for its defense spending, the country’s arms industry is lagging behind the competition, says a report in the U.K. daily The Financial Times (FT).
Poland has become a “star member” of NATO, leading the alliance’s league table for defense spending.
The FT has reported that the 4.1% of GDP Warsaw is spending this year outstrips U.S. expenditures in relative terms and more than doubles the bloc’s guideline for members’ investment in defense.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Warsaw has been keen to reinforce its defenses and to show the public their security is being taken care of. Last year alone, Warsaw signed off on a deal to procure nearly 500 HIMARS artillery systems from Lockheed Martin, exceeding the number the U.S. has stationed on its own territory.
In August, Poland closed a $10-billion contract for 96 Apache helicopter gunships, making it the world’s number two Apache customer after the U.S.
Deals of similar magnitude have been signed with South Korea for tanks and Howitzers.
But when the EU allocated money in March to 31 companies to beef up the continent’s ammunition production, only one Polish contractor was on the list. Of a total pool of €500 million, Poland received just €2.1 million.
Mariusz Błaszczak, defense minister in the former Law and Justice (PiS) government, used the poor result to attack the new prime minister, Donald Tusk, congratulating “Donald King of Europe” on securing 0.42% of the fund.
Błaszczak’s successor, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, has blamed the sector’s lackluster performance on PiS’s “tragic” legacy, which he claims was marked by underfunding, leading to tenders being botched and problems in production.
South Korea’s deputy defense minister, Sung Il, told the FT that plans to transfer tank technology to Poland as part of an offset agreement have had to be postponed due to outdated assembly plants.
“I didn’t expect these kinds of problems,” Sung told the paper.
The FT has reported that the 4.1% of GDP Warsaw is spending this year outstrips U.S. expenditures in relative terms and more than doubles the bloc’s guideline for members’ investment in defense.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Warsaw has been keen to reinforce its defenses and to show the public their security is being taken care of. Last year alone, Warsaw signed off on a deal to procure nearly 500 HIMARS artillery systems from Lockheed Martin, exceeding the number the U.S. has stationed on its own territory.
In August, Poland closed a $10-billion contract for 96 Apache helicopter gunships, making it the world’s number two Apache customer after the U.S.
Deals of similar magnitude have been signed with South Korea for tanks and Howitzers.
But when the EU allocated money in March to 31 companies to beef up the continent’s ammunition production, only one Polish contractor was on the list. Of a total pool of €500 million, Poland received just €2.1 million.
Mariusz Błaszczak, defense minister in the former Law and Justice (PiS) government, used the poor result to attack the new prime minister, Donald Tusk, congratulating “Donald King of Europe” on securing 0.42% of the fund.
Błaszczak’s successor, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, has blamed the sector’s lackluster performance on PiS’s “tragic” legacy, which he claims was marked by underfunding, leading to tenders being botched and problems in production.
South Korea’s deputy defense minister, Sung Il, told the FT that plans to transfer tank technology to Poland as part of an offset agreement have had to be postponed due to outdated assembly plants.
“I didn’t expect these kinds of problems,” Sung told the paper.
Plans for the sector
Poland’s arms industry has achieved some successes. Among Warsaw’s massive overseas outlays was $1.2 billion on additional Patriot air-defense systems from the U.S. Kosiniak-Kamysz hailed the deal as “a great achievement” as the hardware will be built in Poland.
Most of the country’s defense production is concentrated in the state-owned conglomerate PGZ which groups around 50 contractors. Overhauling PGZ is one of Kosiniak-Kamysz's stated priorities as he argues that it too suffered from mismanagement under PiS. Some analysts suggest that the domestic behemoth typifies Poland’s over-reliance on large public holdings.
Smaller private firms have also made headlines, however. WB Group has won recognition for its drones and radios and in September struck a deal with South Korean companies to work together on submarine technology and guided missiles.
Tusk’s coalition government has said more defense equipment should be domestically produced and has talked of aiming for as much as 50% of future procurements to be linked to Polish production.
Next year’s defense budget is planned at a record 4.7% of GDP, or 187 billion złoty (€43.9 billion), but with only 1.1% of this year’s defense spend allocated to research and development, the government will have to up its game if the sector is to compete internationally.
