Poland has agreed an air defence deal with the UK worth around £4 billion (20 billion zloty) – the largest ever commercial agreement between the two countries.

The arrangement will see the British arm of European missile maker MBDA supply Warsaw with over 1,000 CAMM-ER surface-to-air missiles and more than 100 launchers.

The equipment, which has been contracted by Polish state defence holding group PGZ, will be integrated into Poland’s Narew air defence programme. It follows a £1.9 billion deal earlier this year for Poland to buy the UK’s CAMM missile system.

“This is another crucial step forward for our historic defence ties with Poland, supplying next-generation air defence capabilities to act as a clear deterrent to our adversaries,” said Britain’s defence secretary, Grant Shapps.

“The scale and ambition of Narew is truly impressive – building a Polish air defence shield using our CAMM family missiles and launchers that will protect the entirety of Poland’s skies,” added Chris Allam, managing director of MBDA UK.

Both Schapps and Allam, as well as Polish defence minister Mariusz Błaszczak, noted that the deal will also involve technology transfers to Poland that will allow the production of missiles and launchers at Polish facilities.

Poland’s three-part air defence programme consists of the Wisła long-range, Narew short-range, and Pilica+ very short-range missile defence systems.

While Poland the Narew programme had already been established before the war in Ukraine, Russia’s invasion prompted Warsaw to accelerate the plans, bringing the delivery of the first British CAMM missile systems forward by five years.

Last year, the UK also deployed its most advanced radar and missile defence system, Sky Sabre, to Poland to counter the escalating Russian threat.

Meanwhile, Poland has also signed billions of dollars worth of defence procurement deals with the United States and South Korea, as it seeks to build what Błaszczak claims will be Europe’s most powerful land forces.


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Main image credit: Sławomir Kozioł/18 Dywizja Zmechanizowana/X

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