TSAMTO, April 26. Polish Minister of National Defense Mariusz Blaszczak, following talks held in Washington on April 21 with representatives of the US defense industry, said that Warsaw intends to purchase more American-made weapons.
During the visit on April 20-22, the Minister met with the heads of three American defense corporations: General Dynamics, which produces the Abrams MBT, Lockheed Martin, which produces F-35 fighter jets and Boeing, which produces AH-64 Apache attack helicopters. According to the minister, Poland plans to purchase American weapons as part of the "Foreign Military Sales" program.
After the talks, M. Blaszczak said that Poland intends to increase purchases of military equipment in the United States and will soon begin submitting requests related to the acquisition of modern weapons to equip the Polish Army. In the case of attack helicopters, the Polish Ministry of Defense will be able to choose between the proposed Boeing AH-64E Apache and Bell AH-1Z. At the same time, it is stated that one of the decisive factors is the delivery time.
M. Blaszczak said that now Poland, first of all, needs additional Patriot air defense systems, HIMARS MLRS batteries, combat helicopters, fighter jets, JASSM (Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile) missiles and Javelin anti-tank complexes.
Earlier, at a meeting held on April 20 at the Pentagon with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, M. Blaszczak said that starting next year Warsaw will increase defense spending to 3% of GDP. The Minister also recalled that at the beginning of this month Poland signed an agreement on the acquisition of 250 MBT M1A2 SEPV3 "Abrams" in the USA. Earlier, the United States also ordered, among other things, the Patriot air defense system in 2018 and F-35 fighters in 2020.
M. Blashchak expressed gratitude to the United States "for its participation and commitment to strengthening the allied position" against "Russian aggression" in Ukraine, strengthening the eastern flank of NATO, including the deployment of additional troops in Poland.
M. Blaszczak added that during negotiations with L. Austin, he received "strong support" for Poland's plans to increase arms purchases from the United States.
