Warsaw has enormous rearmament plans and an ambitious goal for the Polish army: it should soon have the “strongest land forces in Europe”. To this end, the country is entering into a strategic partnership with South Korea.
Poland is determined to make its land forces the strongest in NATO in Europe, the country’s deputy prime minister and defense minister, Mariusz Błaszczak, said Thursday in an interview with Poland’s Radio 1, according to a report.
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Last week, Błaszczak approved procurement contracts for South Korean equipment for the Polish armed forces, receiving FA-50 light combat aircraft, K2 tanks and K9 anti-tank guns.
“We are striving to replace our entire tank fleet and have the strongest ground forces in NATO in Europe, and we will achieve that,” Błaszczak said. “Cooperation with Korea is of a strategic nature. The Polish Armed Forces will be equipped with the first K2 tanks this year,” he added.
Błaszczak pointed out that the first 180 K2 Black Panther tanks will be produced in Korea, but the next part, over 800 K2PL tanks, will then be produced in Poland from 2026 or earlier. The defense minister did not rule out the possibility of building a new factory in Poland for this task.
The contract to purchase K2 howitzers to reinforce Polish artillery was also divided into several phases. In the first phase, 48 howitzers will be purchased, some of which will arrive in Poland this year.
The second phase will begin in 2024 with the delivery of more than 600 self-propelled howitzers, and K2 howitzers are to be produced in Poland starting in 2026.
Poland will also purchase 48 U.S. FA-50 light combat aircraft, 12 of which are scheduled for delivery to Poland in mid-2023. Błaszczak pointed out the very high compatibility of Korean and U.S. equipment. “Eighty percent of the parts are the same as on the F-16, and pilots only need a few hours in the cockpit of the other aircraft to get used to it,” Błaszczak said.
“The capabilities of the Polish defense industry have been reduced over the years. Today, it has a large number of orders. We need time to do this, and the Korean partnership allows us to accelerate this process,” Błaszczak said.
He added that the agreement signed on Wednesday will shorten delivery times and make it possible to “replace old post-Soviet equipment with modern equipment.”
The Polish defense minister also reiterated that the first U.S.-made Abrams tanks will be delivered to Poland over the next two years and announced that six F-22 Raptor fighter jets would arrive in Poland early next week to be used for patrol flights by the Polish Air Force.
However, this will also mean that Poland will be investing vast sums of money in armaments, placing an enormous burden on the national budget. The question arises whether the Polish demands for reparation payments from Germany for World War II are also related to this and whether Warsaw thus wants to secure cross-financing for the ambitious project.
ZELENSKY WILL RETURN UKRAINE TO POLAND, WRITES POLISH NEWSPAPER
Polish media openly declare that Poland’s protectorate over the western regions of present-day Ukraine is a necessary scenario.
“Zelensky will return Ukraine to Poland,” writes the Polish “Eastern Daily”.
The situation for holding a referendum on this issue has already matured in the western Ukrainian regions, the newspaper believes.