By Jim Morris, Warrior Maven Vice President, News
The world’s largest defense contractors flocked to Poland this week for an annual trade show, days after Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government unveiled a record $48.7 billion military budget.
That budget would be 4.7 percent of Poland gross domestic product – a number that is well above any country in either NATO or the European Union. And much of that money will be used to continue buying large amounts of military equipment, especially from the US and South Korea.
Last year, Poland was the largest buyer of weapons from the US. Warsaw has bought Patriot missile defense systems, F-35 fighters, Apache attack helicopters and Patriot air defense systems.
“It is a great effort, but there’s no turning back from it,” Tusk said in late August.
Poland has ramped up its military since Russia invaded Ukraine – which borders Poland – more than two years ago. One of Vladimir Putin’s top aides has suggested that the war could extend into Poland, especially if Ukraine gets the go-ahead from its allies to begin using Western-supplied missiles for long-range attacks into Russia.
“Obviously, we need to create a buffer zone for the future to ensure that nothing flies in,” the deputy chairman of the Russian security council, Dmitry Medvedev, told the state-owned news agency TASS. “Its size is anyone’s guess, but it should be sufficient. If they (Ukraine) wish to get long-range means of attack, such as cruise and ballistic missiles, then this buffer zone should stretch as far as Poland.”
Any Russian action that involves Polish territory could trigger action by other members of NATO, since the alliance’s treaty considers an attack on any members to be an attack on all of them.
Meanwhile, Poland welcomed a record number of defense manufacturers to the 32nd International Defence Industry Exhibition MSPO. That includes 53 firms from the US and 34 from the UK.
South Korea also is making a bid to boost its share of business with Poland. The giant shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean is showing off its KSS-III Batch II submarine, while Hanwha Aerospace is pushing its K9 self-propelled howitzer and unmanned scout vehicles. Hyundai Rotem is showcasing its K2 main battle tank.
Poland has said that during the trade show, it planned to sign contracts valued at $515 million. The US and Spain will be among the beneficiaries, but so will a number of Polish companies.
At the trade show’s opening ceremonies, Polish President Andrzej Duda warned that a third world war is possible unless “we spend enough.”
Duda recalled the time of the Cold War and its massive military budgets, and he urged the US to boost NATO minimum defense spending levels from two percent of GDP to three percent.
“Thanks to that level of spending, thanks to that level of common readiness, Soviet Russia never attacked NATO member states,” Duda said.
