By Galina Korol and AFP | 2024-09-04

KYIV -- As Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine, Poland is conducting its largest campaign in decades to reequip its military.

Poland September 3 announced new military deals worth several hundred million euros, the latest in the NATO member's drive to beef up its defense.

"The Polish government... will sign contracts for nearly 2 billion zloty," or roughly €468 million, Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz told reporters at a military trade fair in Kielce.

Poland inked three contracts pertaining to military logistics and communication and was preparing September 4 to sign "an enormous contract for nearly 1.1 billion zloty [€257 million] with a Spanish group," Kosiniak-Kamysz said.

The deal will involve surveillance systems for around airports, he said, without providing further details.

Apache attack helicopters

Last month, Warsaw inked a $10 billion (€9 billion) deal to buy 96 US-made Apache attack helicopters. They will replace outdated Russian Mi-24 helicopters.

"This $10 billion is insurance for our state, insurance for our freedom," Paweł Bejda, secretary of state of Poland's Ministry of Defense, said August 13, according to a government statement.

The helicopter is "an extraordinary combat and reconnaissance and attack vehicle. There is no other helicopter in the world like the Apache in every respect," he added.

Poland has also acquired the technology to operate these helicopters, which will enable its aircraft plants to overhaul or repair the AH-64E, Interia news agency reported.

"With the signing of today's contract, Poland is becoming the largest Apache operator outside of the US," US Ambassador to Poland Mark Brzezinski posted August 13 on his personal Instagram page.

Series of contracts

The Apache deal is the latest in a series of contracts signed recently by Warsaw and Washington.

On August 12, Poland signed a contract worth $1.23 billion (€1.1 billion) with Raytheon Polska and PGZ Huta Stalowa Wola to manufacture 48 launchers for the US-designed Patriot air defense systems.

"We have signed a very important contract for M903 missile launchers," Kosiniak-Kamysz said, according to an August 12 X post by the Polish Defense Ministry. "[They will] be completely produced in Poland."

Just days earlier, on August 9, the Polish Armament Agency announced a $850 million (€770 million) sale of several hundred US-made AIM-120C AMRAAM air-to-air missiles to Poland.

"The missiles will be delivered between 2029 and 2033. The aerial combat equipment will be used by [Polish] air force combat aircraft," the agency posted on X.

'Preparing for war'

Poland's Senate passed the Homeland Defense Act on March 11, 2022 -- just two weeks after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine -- to strengthen the Polish military, said Stanislav Zhelikhovsky of Kyiv, a political scientist.

"The law also anticipated increasing the army's headcount to 300,000: 250,000 professional troops and 50,000 members of the territorial defense forces," he told Kontur. "That's much bigger than it has been."

"The law .. included many other new things, such as organizing a reservist system and streamlining the recruitment process, expanding the incentive system for draftees to stay in the army, and introducing voluntary military service," he said. "And of course, it ... addressed higher spending."

Poland currently spends 4% of its GDP on defense -- the highest ratio of any NATO member -- and hopes to boost the number to 4.7% next year.

"The Poles aren't planning on slowing down, and by 2025 they intend to raise their defense spending to 5% of GDP," said Alexander Khara, a diplomat and foreign policy analyst at the Center for Defense Strategies in Kyiv.

"They're preparing very seriously, and this will be one of the most combat-ready armies, at least if we're talking about the land component," he said.

"In 2023, a contract was signed for the delivery of 116 Abrams tanks, and another 250 tanks have been ordered for the future," said Khara. "That's in addition to 182 Korean K2 tanks."

The Poles "are preparing for war ... they're preparing now," he said.

A stronger Poland

The war that Russia launched against Ukraine has directly affected Poland's security, said Piotr Kulpa, a former Polish labor minister now living in Kyiv.

This war started in 2014 and has two phases, said Kulpa, director of the School of Ministers at the Serhiy Nyzhnyy Kyiv School of Public Administration.

"The first one, from 2014 to 2022, was the incredible mobilization of the public and the people's awareness that if we don't take action, our security and Poland's sovereignty would be under threat," he told Kontur.

"The result of this was public agreement to marshal resources that were unprecedented in terms of NATO, and to strengthen transatlantic solidarity and shore up the United States' presence in Europe, especially in Poland, and to have American troops there."

A "radical change of perception" appeared in Poland in 2014, he said.

With the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin created what he feared most and even bolstered Poland's security, Kulpa said.

"When Ukraine didn't surrender, that's when Poland's security improved drastically," he said, referring to the three-day collapse that did not happen.

"The key to Poland's security is an efficiently run, wealthy Ukraine under the rule of law. And now an opportunity to achieve that has been created," Kulpa said. "What Putin fears most is the emergence of such a Ukraine."

"Poland has learned the hard way what aggression is and what it means to live with aggressive neighbors," Zhelikhovsky said, referring to Belarus's use of Middle Eastern or South Asian migrants to storm the Polish border.

"Even after the active phase of the full-scale war that's going on between Russia and Ukraine, we'll see in Poland and other countries -- especially the ones that border Russia -- that this trajectory will continue toward raising spending on defense and on modernizing it."