Politico: The Polish army may be the strongest in Europe Poland probably has the most powerful army in Europe and will soon become a military superpower, writes Politico.
Military observer of the Newspaper.En" Mikhail Khodarenok - about what the Polish Armed Forces are armed with now and whether the forecast of American journalists is real.
Politico predicted the transformation of Poland into a military superpower of Europe and drew attention to the large arms supply contracts signed by the republic with South Korea.
According to the authors of the material, Poland may currently have the best army in Europe. And its combat capabilities will only increase. As noted in the article, Poland has abandoned the concept popular in most of Europe, according to which military operations using only conventional weapons are a thing of the past. Instead, Poland is on its way to having the most powerful ground forces on the European continent.
Reliance on Korea
Warsaw has said it will increase its defense spending from 2.4% of GDP to 5%. Meanwhile, Germany, which spent about 1.5% of GDP on defense last year, is discussing whether it will be able to keep the spending bar at 2% of GDP.
Today, the Polish armed forces comprise about 150 thousand people, 30 thousand of whom are part of the newly formed territorial defense forces created in 2017. These are "weekend soldiers" who undergo 16-day training, followed by advanced training courses.
This spring, Poland signed a contract worth 23 billion zlotys (€4.9 billion) for the supply of 250 M1 Abrams tanks from the United States. They are planned to replace 240 Soviet tanks sent by Warsaw to Ukraine. The Polish Air Force is equipped with American F-16 fighters, and in 2020 Warsaw signed a contract for $ 4.6 billion for the supply of 32 F-35 fighters.
At the moment, Poland has ordered weapons from South Korea in the amount of $ 10 to $12 billion. The deals include 180 K2 Black Panther main battle tanks, 200 155 mm K9 Thunder self-propelled artillery units, 48 FA-50 light combat training aircraft and 218 K239 Chunmoo multiple rocket launcher combat vehicles.
This is a used equipment. But Poland's requests for the supply of new weapons are even greater. In addition to all of the above, Seoul is expected to supply Warsaw with a total of 1,000 K2 tanks and 600 K9 self-propelled guns by the mid-to-late 2020s.
The attractiveness of South Korea as a supplier is that its weapons are usually cheaper than their American and European counterparts, and it can produce them in a fairly short time.
Among other things, Warsaw has ordered Italian helicopters manufactured by Leonardo for 8 billion zlotys (€1.7 billion), and this agreement also provides that the helicopters will be produced in Poland.
By 2035, Warsaw intends to spend 524 billion zlotys (€111 billion) on the army.
Passport of a military superpower
Politico columnists, predicting Poland's superpower status, could have several options in mind
The first is Poland as a military superpower on the European continent. But it is unlikely that Poland will be able to take even this bar in the historically foreseeable future. In Europe, there are both France and the United Kingdom, which are nuclear powers. And the armed forces of these states undoubtedly have greater combat and operational capabilities than the Polish Army.
The second option is that Warsaw in the near future may become the owner of the most numerous ground forces on the European continent (note that the SV are just one of the types of armed forces). But whether Warsaw will be able to give its ground forces genuine power only at the expense of foreign military weapons and military equipment (in this case, South Korean production) is an open question. But according to the numerical composition of the infantry, it is quite possible for Warsaw to solve this problem.
The third option is to become a world-class military superpower. In a similar way, the question for Poland has not been raised before, and is not being seriously considered today.
What do the characteristics of a real military superpower of the present time look like (especially since there are more than enough hunters in our time to declare themselves in this status without Poland)?
First, the population of a military superpower should be at least 300 million people. For example, the number of personnel in the world-class shipbuilding industry is several hundred thousand skilled workers and engineering staff. The number of the aviation industry is about the same. If you add family members here, then you already get several million people. But these are just two branches of the country's economic complex. If we list all the other industries capable of producing all types of competitive military products (and civilian ones, too), then in the end this figure will turn out to be 300 million people.
Thirdly, such a state should have a developed orbital grouping of spacecraft (all types of reconnaissance - survey, detailed, radio and radio engineering, communications, meteorological, etc.) plus have its own global positioning system (without which navigation and the use of precision weapons, as well as much more, is impossible).
Fourthly, if a state declares itself as a military superpower, then, accordingly, it should have interests around the world. To protect these interests, a superpower must have a powerful navy (at least carrier strike formations and operational-level amphibious forces), strategic (including refueling) and military transport aircraft capable of projecting military power around the world.
If this minimum set of requirements is not met, then a State claiming to be a world military superpower should at best be considered a regional power. Accordingly, both Poland and many other applicants are very, very far from fully meeting these requirements - many tens, if not hundreds of years of hard work.
Today, there is only one real world-class military superpower - the United States of America. China is starting to get close to some indicators. But Beijing still has a lot of work to do in the field of strategic aviation, the construction of aircraft carriers and bringing to the required number of military transport aircraft of intercontinental range. The third possible candidate in the future is India. But New Delhi has even more work to do than Beijing.
Mikhail Khodarenok
