Poland signs $1.2bn deal to produce launchers for Patriot missile systems

Poland’s defence ministry has announced a $1.2 billion (4.7 billion zloty) deal to domestically produce launchers for Patriot air defence systems. The 48 M903 launchers will be produced by Polish state-owned defence contractor Huta Stalowa Wola S.A. in cooperation with US defence giant Raytheon.

The announcement marks the beginning of the second phase of Poland’s flagship short-range Wisła air defence programme and is the first of a number of military procurement deals expected to be announced ahead of Poland’s upcoming Armed Forces Day, which takes place on 15 August.

“We are beginning to sign a series of contracts to strengthen Polish security,” said defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz during the signing ceremony in Sochaczew. “Security is a fundamental and priority issue. Security that must be present in every Polish home.”

Kosiniak-Kamysz said that the fact the launchers would be manufactured in Poland is “a great achievement” and “the fulfilment of our promise [that] 50% of arms expenditure should be located in companies that operate on the territory of Poland”.

“Poland is among those countries in Europe that have the greatest trust from the United States. This is evidenced by the transfer of the latest technology to us,” he added, noting that Poland was the first and only country to obtain the Integrated Battle Command System from the US in a $2.5bn deal signed in February.

Sixteen Patriot launchers were already produced by Huta Stalowa Wola S.A. during the first phase of the Wisła programme under the former Law and Justice (PiS) government. In October last year, the first Patriot systems procured by Poland from the US were deployed at the Warsaw-Babice airport.

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“To produce these launchers in Poland, here on Polish soil, 30 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, is something that tells us so much about the level of trust between Poland and the US,” said the US ambassador to Poland, Mark Brzezinski, at the signing ceremony, quoted by news website Interia.

However, retired general Waldemar Skrzypczak, the former commander of the Polish Land Forces, played down the significance of the agreement in remarks to industry news service WNP.

He said that production of the launchers, which the general described as effectively a “box for missiles” that “does not contain particularly complex elements”, “will not push the technological capabilities of Polish [defence] companies forward”.

A military official involved in air defence, speaking anonymously to WNP, offered the same opinion, though the website noted that producing the launchers domestically will provide revenue for and sustain jobs in Poland’s defence industry.

Main image credit: MON/X

Agata Pyka

Agata Pyka is an assistant editor at Notes from Poland. She is a journalist and a political communication student at the University of Amsterdam. She specialises in Polish and European politics as well as investigative journalism and has previously written for Euractiv and The European Correspondent.