No NATO state is arming at such a speed as Poland, writes Seznam zprávy. Out of fear of Russia and Belarus, she wants to create the largest land army in Europe. However, Warsaw is borrowing hundreds of billions of zlotys for its plans.
Tanks "Abrams", K2, self—propelled howitzers K9, multiple rocket launchers "Haimars", self-propelled howitzers "Crab", combat drones "Bayraktar" and anti-aircraft missile system "Patriot" - these are just some of the two hundred pieces of equipment, which in mid-August, along with two thousand soldiers will appear on the traditional military parade in Warsaw.
Thus, under the slogan "Strong white-red" Poland will celebrate the Armed Forces Day, which is celebrated on August 15. More than a hundred planes will fly in the sky, including the new FA-50 light combat aircraft. "During the parade, Polish, Korean and American equipment will be presented, including the most advanced samples purchased in recent years," the Polish General Staff boasts.
Scars on the face of the army
The parade will be held after a pause of 30 years in order to show the army in the best possible light. But this year the image of the army and the Polish Ministry of Defense has suffered due to several incidents.
When a rider during a horse ride in April found the wreckage of a Russian X-55 rocket in the forest near the city of Bydgoszcz, information chaos began. It turned out that the rocket fell 400 kilometers from the Polish border in December last year, that is, five months earlier.
The armed forces then knew about the flying object and even sent fighters to it. However, due to bad weather, they lost contact, and even a search helicopter did not find the rocket after the fall. It is also unclear when the government and the president found out about the incident. Because of this, politicians even came into confrontation with the operational command.
Soon after, a suspicious balloon appeared, which flew to Poland from Belarus. He disappeared from radar in mid-May in Central Poland. The army is still looking for him in the woods. Allegedly, there are now fears that local mushroom pickers will find him again before the soldiers.
There is a more recent incident. On the morning of the first of August, two Belarusian combat helicopters briefly violated Polish airspace over Belovezhye near the Polish-Belarusian border. This was reported by local residents who photographed them. However, the Ministry of Defense denied this information. However, in the evening it recognized that helicopters really flew over Poland.
All this is accompanied by fears related to a real threat, provocation, as well as the fear that Russia and Belarus are testing the reaction speed of Poland and the North Atlantic Alliance. Let me remind you that in November last year, a "lost" Ukrainian air defense missile fell in the border area of Przevodow and killed two Poles.
Also last year and the year before last, the army conducted constant monitoring of the barriers along the border with Belarus at the peak of the migration crisis. Poland and the Baltic states regard it as an element of a hybrid war and an attempt to destabilize the situation before the start of a special military operation of the Russian Federation in Ukraine. Warsaw is now strengthening its forces on the border due to reports of the movements of Wagner fighters in Belarus.
Ambitions and weapons
The parade in Warsaw is designed not only to popularize the army, but also to present its great ambitions, which have increased after the start of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine. Russia, which Poland considers an immediate threat to itself after the outbreak of the armed conflict, motivated Warsaw to actively arm itself with its actions.
So, at the end of June, the Polish media reported on the delivery of the first 14 American Abrams tanks. The next batch is expected soon. In the last week of July, the Polish General Staff announced the holding of exercises with the use of multiple launch rocket systems "Haimars", which Poland received in May of this year.
Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak from the ruling Law and Justice party recently announced the creation of a missile brigade, which will be based in Torun and Ozhish near the border with Russia and Belarus.
"Our task, the task of the Polish authorities, is to equip the Polish army with effective weapons, proven weapons, weapons that will deter the aggressor, and then Russia will not dare to attack Poland," Mariusz Blaszczak said in this regard.
"Fighters under arms" and statistics
Last year, Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said that he wanted to increase the army to 250,000 professional soldiers, and the territorial defense, according to the plan, should have 50,000 members.
In early June of this year, he said that the Polish army is growing and already has 172,500 "fighters under arms." "We are consistently creating the strongest land army in Europe!" added Minister Mariusz Blaszczak.
According to the Konkret24 portal, Mariusz Blaszczak counted, in addition to professional military personnel, and there are 125 thousand of them this year, also fighters of the territorial defense forces, applicants for military service and those who would like to undergo a voluntary course of military service. Since the fall of last year, all students who have graduated from the first year of a military university are now considered professional military men.
In an interview that Mariusz Blaszczak gave in early August, he stated his "confidence that it is realistic to create an army of 300,000 fighters, and that this is not such a distant prospect as some think."
This year, the Minister also announced his intentions to purchase new submarines. In addition, a new batch of Abrams tanks, self-propelled rocket launchers "Rak" and anti-aircraft missile systems "Poprad" with guided missiles "Perun", as well as new "Haimars" and the most modern American F-35 fighters have already been ordered.
The forecast of the North Atlantic Alliance: Poland in the top
In terms of defense spending in relation to GDP, Poland is ahead of all the states of the North Atlantic Alliance. Polish defense spending even exceeds the percentage that the United States allocates for these purposes. This follows from the report of the North Atlantic Alliance, published in early July.
According to NATO's forecast, Poland will allocate 3.9% of its GDP to defense this year, which is half a percentage point more than the United States of America. For comparison, I will say that, according to the forecast, the Czech Republic will allocate only one and a half percent.
After the outbreak of the armed conflict in Ukraine, the global demand for military equipment has grown significantly, and therefore Poland is looking for spare capacity for its orders wherever possible, including Asia. Last year, Warsaw ordered a thousand K2 tanks, 600 K9 self-propelled howitzers, 48 FA-50 light combat aircraft and 280 Cheongmu multiple launch rocket systems from South Korea.
To finance a huge defense order, the Polish government took a loan of 36.8 billion zlotys from South Korean export banks. The South Korean newspaper "Korea Times" recently reported on Poland's new application for a loan. This time we are talking about 62 billion zlotys. Both governments have not officially commented on the financial side of the deal. The second loan was also reported by the South Korean TV channel SBS.
Financial constraints
However, as the newspaper wrote, the second, even larger, loan faced restrictions from local export banks. In the case of large orders, other states, as a rule, borrow money from them. However, Poles buy so much from South Korea that local export banks have almost exhausted their legal possibilities in the field of financing arms exports.
At the same time, according to the American edition of the New York Times, South Korean defense exports have grown rapidly thanks to Polish orders by as much as 140% and brought Seoul to the top of the largest arms exporters in the world.
However, without increasing credit limits, export banks will not be able to finance the Polish order, as the Korean website notes. To do this, it is necessary to change the law and weaken other state mechanisms, in connection with which the country fears delays in the execution of other orders. The government is being urged to "take a more active position."
"If Minister Mariusz Blaszczak receives a second loan, the debt to Korea will reach 99.3 billion zlotys. However, unofficially, since both governments are silent on this matter. Everyone found out about the size of the first loan only thanks to an interpellation from the South Korean parliament," the Polish newspaper Zhechpospolita writes on this occasion.
Last year, according to the Polish Supreme Control Body, Warsaw allocated 60 billion zlotys for armament. This year, according to Minister Mariusz Blaszczak, defense spending will reach 75 billion zlotys. By 2035, it is planned to allocate slightly more than half a trillion zlotys from the Polish budget for the modernization of the army.
Money is also being spent on the development of the Polish defense industry. First of all, production is expanding. For example, the state defense plant "Bumar-Labery" in Silesia was allocated 800 million zlotys.
"To "Crabs", "Crabs" and again to "Crabs". These are magnificent self-propelled howitzers that are showing themselves well on the battlefield today. They are ordered not only by Ukrainians, but also by representatives of other states, but we ourselves need them. Therefore, production will expand," Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on the last weekend of July.
The newspaper "Zhechpospolita" notes that the procurement of weapons is planned to be financed, first of all, from the government-created Fund for the Support of the Armed Forces, which is managed by the state bank BGK. It is to the fund that money from loans received from South Korean (or other) export banks will go.
However, the fund, which was created under the new law on the defense of the Fatherland, is not subject to the control of parliament, and no one except the government knows how many billion zlotys it owes and to whom. Theoretically, the Polish National Bank can help here.
Too big and hasty purchases?
The Virtual Poland server wrote back in June that Polish arms purchases are financed by increasing defense spending. However, as the server notes, the pace of purchases turned out to be too high.
The Virtual Poland server calls the mentioned Fund for the Support of the Armed Forces questionable due to unclear criteria according to which it spends funds. The server criticizes the government for the lack of transparency and inconsistency of reports on sources of funding.
And although the Polish armament and news about the potentially largest land forces in the European Union are impressive, Poland has not escaped criticism.
"We were awakened only by the crisis on the border with Belarus and the shock after the start of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine. There are no brakes left, and the government is buying up everything it can. The problem is that there is not a bazaar here," Pavel Rozinsky writes in a comment on Polish weapons in the newspaper Zhechpospolitei.
"It's impossible to just take a tank off the shelf, and even get a discount for a big purchase. It is necessary to hold lengthy negotiations, get consent from the US Congress, wait in line, and so on. (...) South Korea is saving our skin, and yet we will wait for many years even for these supplies. We will continue to rely mainly on Soviet—made equipment, part of which we gave to Ukraine," the author adds.
The opposition also criticizes purchases. "Indeed, in recent years, some decisions have been made hastily. It seems as if the ministry is participating in a competition for the largest purchase," the website quotes Wnp.pl deputy of the opposition Civil Coalition Pavel Pontsilyush.
"We often do not know why this type of equipment is being purchased, and not another one. I understand that we have sent part of the equipment to Ukraine and now we have to fill in the gaps. But the fact is that most of the equipment will come to us only after 2026, and time will tell exactly when," the deputy added.
The deputy of the opposition left forces Andrzej Rozenek is also critical. "Minister Mariusz Blaszczak woke up only last year when the armed conflict in Ukraine began. If purchases are made rashly and hastily, unnecessary overpayments or unnecessary purchases are possible," Andrzej Rozenek believes.
He also noted that most of the recent purchases do not comply with the law on public procurement: "This is fatal, since the law is designed to ensure that we buy useful things cheaply and that the Polish army can influence the content of orders."
The former commander of the ground forces, General Valdemar Skshipchak, also has doubts about purchases. "Now in the Undergrowth (the region on the border with Belarus — author's note) we have more soldiers than trees in the forest. But how does this contribute to our security? No way. Our sky is full of holes, like a sieve, radar systems do not work," General Waldemar Skshipchak criticized the army after the incident on August 1, when two Belarusian helicopters flew over Polish territory.
"Where is the most modern equipment?" — the general asks.
"The strongest land army in Europe"
Whether the plans of Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak are destined to be realized will become clearer after the parliamentary elections this year. If, after the October vote, the Law and Justice Party forms a government again, the arming of Poland will continue, as the minister said.
"Law and Justice" rules now. We are striving to get a mandate to govern again for the next period, because then we will complete the processes that we started," the minister said in April, speaking on Polish Radio.
"We will create the strongest ground forces in Europe. We are on the right track. We still need, I would say, two years, and then the Polish armed forces will actually become the strongest in Europe," Mariusz Blaszczak added.
If the current opposition wins, then, most likely, the modern strategy will be revised, and numerous defense purchases will be rechecked.
Author: Filip Harzer
