Poland’s defence minister, Mariusz Błaszczak, has “accepted with satisfaction” an offer by his German counterpart, Christine Lambrecht, to transfer Patriot air defence systems from Germany to Poland. It came after a missile crossed the border from Ukraine last week, killing two people in a Polish village.
“We have offered Poland support in securing airspace, with our Eurofighters and Patriot air defence systems,” Lambrecht told German media yesterday, in quotes carried by Polish news outlet Onet.
“I have accepted with satisfaction the German defence minister’s proposal regarding the deployment of additional Patriot missile launchers in our country,” tweeted Błaszczak this morning, adding that the issue would be discussed by phone today.
Z satysfakcją przyjąłem propozycję niemieckiej minister obrony dot. rozmieszczenia w naszym kraju dodatkowych wyrzutni rakiet Patriot. Podczas dzisiejszej rozmowy telefonicznej ze stroną niemiecką, zaproponuję by system stacjonował przy granicy z Ukrainą.
— Mariusz Błaszczak (@mblaszczak) November 21, 2022
The MIM-104 Patriot is a defence system that uses surface-to-air missiles and radar. It is produced by US defence contractor Raytheon. Poland has already hosted Patriot batteries sent by the US, including two that arrived after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine this year.
In 2018, Poland also signed a $4.75 billion contract to purchase two Patriot batteries, and earlier this year issued a letter of intent for a further six. The first are due to be operationally ready in late 2023 or early 2024, reports Onet.
Germany has a total of 12 Patriot PAC-3 batteries for operational use, reports the Defence24 website. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, two of those were deployed to Slovakia.
Last week, Deutsche Welle also reported that Germany had made a proposal to Poland for its Eurofighter jets to help patrol Polish airspace. Poland’s defence ministry confirmed to TVN24 that the offer had been “signalled” by Berlin and that talks would take place.
German Eurofighter jets have in recent months already been participating in patrolling Polish airspace, notes Defence24.
The offer of support from Germany has come after a missile crossed the border from Ukraine into Poland last week and landed in the village of Przewodów, killing two people.
While initial reports suggested it had been a missile fired by Russia, the evidence now indicates that it came from Ukraine’s air defence systems, which were responding to a wave of missiles fired at Ukraine by Russia.
In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Poland has boosted defence spending to 3% of GDP and embarked on an arms procurement spree, including ordering hundreds of tanks, rocket artillery launchers and fighter planes from South Korea.
The Polish government has also been one of Ukraine’s strongest backers, including transferring more military equipment to Kyiv than any country other than the US.
Warsaw has previously criticised Germany for not offering enough military support for Ukraine and accused Berlin of reneging on its promise to provide Poland with tanks to replace those given to Ukraine.
Main image credit: NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization /flickr.com (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.
