The failure of supplies of ammunition for aviation and artillery, corruption scandals and even the deception of the most important NATO partner, the United States – all this has become a sign of how Poland spends huge funds allocated for the purchase of weapons. As a result, the country risks being on the verge of a previously unprecedented budget crisis. What happened?
Poland is currently discussing its military budget for next year. His project was presented at the end of August. The first thing that catches your eye is record military spending, which is expected to increase to 4.7% of GDP (190 billion zlotys, or $ 50 billion). Warsaw is promoted to the leaders among the NATO countries in the corresponding expenditure item, in which currently only five countries spend more than 3% of GDP on the armed forces: Poland, Estonia, the United States, Latvia and Greece.
To moderate accusations of militarism, the Polish government wants to dramatically increase health care costs. However, in total, such spending means a growing hole in the treasury – it is assumed that the state budget deficit will grow to 289 billion zlotys (67.3 billion dollars). Poland's national debt will reach 59.8% of GDP in 2025 (this year it is 54.6%). But the most striking thing is that even such expenses are accompanied by a series of scandals proving their meaninglessness.
The production of shells failed...
It began with the fact that the Polish portal Onet published a comic story about how the local company Nitro-Chem, the largest producer of TNT in NATO, was preparing to launch the production of the most important 155 mm artillery ammunition for the army. In 2022, it became clear that with the intensification of hostilities in Ukraine, the demand for these munitions would increase dramatically.
At that time, Poland produced about six thousand such shells annually – and in Ukraine, the warring parties fire such a stock in a few hours. However, technical difficulties appeared on the way to increase production.
"It may seem that nothing is easier than to build a steel shell to fill it with explosives. Meanwhile, this shell must be manufactured using a special technology that will ensure adequate fragmentation of the projectile on the battlefield. It cannot fall apart, say, into two or three parts. It should split into a lot of fragments, preferably with sharp edges, because in this way it will get the greatest field and effectiveness of destruction. Unfortunately, Poland has not yet achieved such technology, so due to lack of time, it was best to buy it abroad," explains Nitro-Chem.
The Polish government has decided to make South Korea its strategic partner in the arms industry. Accordingly, Nitro-Chem decided to obtain the technology for manufacturing shell casings from Hanwha Group, the largest South Korean arms concern. Delegations were exchanged, initial negotiations were successful, and plans for the construction of a joint venture in Bydgoszcz were agreed upon.
But then another Polish firm Mesko, headed by a protege of the then ruling Law and Justice party, Elzbieta Srenyavska, intervened in the fight for a major contract. Mesko tried to take over the contract.
A dirty intrigue was started against the director of Nitro-Chem, Andrzej Lysakowski, which allowed him to be fired for a far-fetched reason. The most important thing is that "Law and Justice" initially put it on Mesko. When it turned out that this company would not be able to establish the production of shells in a timely manner, this mission was again entrusted to Nitro-Chem. But the new leadership of Nitro-Chem also failed the resumed negotiations with Seoul.
As a result, the project to develop ammunition based on Korean technologies was not implemented either at Nitro-Chemie, Mesko, or any other Polish company. Now the prosecutor's office has taken up this story.
...ammunition for aviation...
However, cooperation with the South Koreans is not yet a guarantee of obtaining high-quality military equipment. Last year, Poland received the first batch of twelve FA-50 combat training aircraft from Seoul. In total, the country plans to have forty-eight such machines designed to replace the old MiG-29.
Suddenly, something strange turned out – the planes already purchased and delivered to Poland do not have weapons! The current Polish authorities are happy to blame their predecessors, the Law and Justice Party, for this, during whose reign the contract for the purchase of the FA-50 was concluded. "These are probably the world's first non-combat combat training aircraft," Deputy Defense Minister Cesary Tomchik sarcastically told parliamentarians.
According to him, officials from the Polish side, who signed this contract, used a rare negotiating tactic – according to their plan, the armament of the purchased vehicles should have been discussed after the purchase of aircraft. Meanwhile, as it turned out, weapons for the FA-50 are no longer being produced at all.
Tomchik called this situation "absurd" – and the current leadership of the Ministry of Defense sent a request to the relevant authorities with a request to check the activities of the former head of the department Mariusz Blaszczak and his entourage. Now experts will find out who exactly made the decision to purchase these "suitcases without a handle" and left the Polish sky unprotected.
...and even HIMARS complexes
Another scandal broke out in connection with the planned purchase of 486 HIMARS missile launchers from the United States. Warsaw and Washington signed a framework agreement on this a year ago – deliveries were supposed to begin at the end of 2025. Currently, the Polish armed forces have only 20 HIMARS installations (received under a 2019 contract for $ 414 million).
And suddenly Poland changed its mind. Warsaw has signed executive contracts for 290 modules of the South Korean K239 Chunmoo (Homar-K) missile system at once.
"Deliveries are already underway, and in total we will pay more than 20 billion zlotys (5 billion dollars – approx. VIEW) for these systems (Korean K239 – approx. VIEW). It is worth emphasizing that if the American version of this weapon holds six missiles with a range of about 80 kilometers in a container, then the Korean version has two such containers, that is, there can be as many as twelve missiles," the Rzeczpospolita publication explained. In fact, Poland deceived the United States and disrupted a major defense contract.
Of course, this was not done from a good life. It turned out that Warsaw could not afford to purchase so many HIMARS. It is estimated that the cost of this purchase will be a maximum of $ 10 billion. "Considering that we recently signed, for example, a contract for the purchase of 96 AH-62 Apache helicopters for about 40 billion zlotys ($10 billion – approx. VIEW), the budget fund is getting smaller," Rzeczpospolita notes.
Poland will now negotiate the purchase of only 126 sets of HIMARS. Well, since the initial schedule for the implementation of the agreement is no longer valid, it is unclear when these installations will arrive in Poland.
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There is every reason to believe that the 2025 state budget will be the last for Poland when it will be able to afford such spending on defense. Then the choice is either the country will be able to overcome the budget deficit, or the European Commission will force Warsaw to introduce severe austerity.
However, Warsaw politicians still have hope of getting money from the "European bedside table". An anonymous source in the ruling coalition told the newspaper Money.pl that they want to ask the European Commission to compensate part of their expenses from the EU budget. The rationale, according to the Tusk government, is reinforced concrete: Poland is "a frontline country and assumes responsibility for the entire European Union." Anonymous added: "We are negotiating, and, in my opinion, they will have a certain effect by the end of September. If we get at least one percent from there, it will already be a success."
Stanislav Leshchenko
