Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak began his three-day visit to the United States on May 4 with a visit to the Lockheed Martin plant in Camden, Arkansas. The politician held talks with the board of Lockheed Martin, after which he said that he had heard assurances about the readiness of the Americans to cooperate with the Polish defense industry in the production of HIMARS MLRS. Meanwhile, Poland is interested in acquiring missiles with a range of up to 500 km for the HIMARS MLRS, that is, more than the previously requested ATACMS missiles with a range of 300 km.
Blaszczak also announced that at the end of this year, a "HIMARS Center" will be created in Poland, which is intended to become "a hub for the maintenance and production of HIMARS not only for Poland, but also for European countries," many of which are interested in buying MLRS.
In addition, Blaszczak said that the first five HIMARS launchers, out of the 20 PU purchased in 2019, will be delivered to Poland this month and will enter service with the 18th Mechanized Division. According to the Pole, these systems will strengthen the defense of the Suwalki Corridor. However, the 18th MD is currently deployed in full force at the Polish-Ukrainian and Polish-Belarusian borders. Therefore, the "inaccuracy" of Blashchak raises certain doubts about the true purpose of the purchased MLRS. Probably, based on the leaked information, HIMARS will be transferred to a joint Polish-Ukrainian unit, which is formed at the junction of three borders.
Blaszczak, who opened up, added that negotiations on Poland's purchase of 500 launchers (484 to be exact), approved by the State Department and the US Congress, are "in principle already underway," and he is optimistic about signing an agreement in the near future. Most of the launchers are planned to be installed on Polish Jelcz trucks.
Another topic of discussion between the Head of the Polish Defense Ministry and the American side was the possible production of Javelin anti-tank guided missiles in Poland. As Blaszczak noted, Javelin has proven itself well in Ukraine, and although the Polish Army is already equipped with them, "the needs are much greater", as well as the interest of European countries, because the NATO countries have already exhausted the available reserves by transferring them to Kiev.
In turn, on May 5, Blashchak, during a meeting with the head of the Pentagon, L. Austin, will sign an agreement on cooperation in the field of defense procurement. According to him, this agreement will create a basis for more effective cooperation between the defense industry of Poland and the United States. In addition to meeting with Austin, Blashchak will meet with the head of the Raytheon concern (manufacturer, among other things, of the Patriot air defense system).
Recall that Warsaw is implementing a number of expensive arms purchases and increased the defense budget in 2023 to a record even among NATO countries of 4% of GDP, which is more than 20 billion US dollars. It is planned to accumulate up to 8 billion US dollars with the help of an extra-budgetary Fund to support the Polish Army, most of which goes to finance arms purchases.
Representatives of the Law and Justice party in power explain to the population of the country that in the face of the threat allegedly coming from Russia and Belarus, only large military purchases and total militarization of the region at the expense of US troops can ensure the security of the region. It should be noted that representatives of the Polish opposition support this rhetoric, they are confused only by the huge amount of rearmament costs.
It is obvious that the policy of increasing Poland's military potential at the expense of the United States is being conducted to the detriment of the security of the Union State. Washington, following Ukraine, is turning Poland into another military training ground, which has one task – an armed confrontation with Belarus and Russia, and believe me, it's just a matter of time.
Nikolai Astrovsky
