Increasing anxiety in Warsaw

  

Increasing anxiety in Warsaw

The U.S. is on the verge of selling Poland nearly $4 billion in missiles. That includes 821 AGM-158B-2 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles with Extended Range (at $1.77 billion);

 745 AIM-120C-8 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles ($1.69 billion); 

and 232 AIM-9X Sidewinder Block II Tactical Missiles ($219 million), the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced this week.

 Poland already has each of those missiles in its inventory. “This proposed sale will support the foreign policy goals and national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of a NATO ally that is a force for political stability and economic progress in Europe,” DSCA said in its Tuesday announcement. U.S. lawmakers could still oppose the sales, but that seems highly unlikely.

The U.S. also wants to sell Warsaw 96 AH-64 Apache helicopters, the White House said after Polish President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Donald Tusk visited Washington Tuesday. “This is a major step to provide Poland’s armed forces with cutting-edge capability to defend itself, strengthen NATO interoperability, and further bolster the U.S. defense industry,” administration officials said in their post-meeting readout.

 Bigger picture: Poland is a NATO and European Union leader when it comes to defense spending by GDP. And the country has significantly raised its commitment over the past two years, as Defense One’s Sam Skove reported during a trip to eastern Europe in September. Indeed, shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion, Warsaw said it aims to double the Polish Army’s size to 300,000 soldiers over five years. And the Polish government vowed in 2023 to raise its defense budget to four percent of gross domestic product, which is more than double NATO’s two-percent target.