POLAND has built the largest military force in Europe, with around 300,000. This is a direct response to Vladimir Putin.
There is hope that the soldiers will have 2,000 tanks to back them up, along with dozens new fighter jets. new rocket launchers and three new warships.
As the Eastern front of Europe faces its most volatile period since World War 2, this highly ambitious budgeting programme is a response to that instability.
The country’s response to Putin and his brutal invasion of Ukraine appears to be a result of the threats he made.
This year alone the country will spend £25billion beefing up its military which equates to 4 per cent of GDP.
This is more than double the UK rate of 2 percent and higher among NATO member countries.
Between now and 2035, it intends to spend a staggering £100billion.
Mariusz Błaszczak, the country’s defence minister, has made it clear the build-up is intended as a warning to the Kremlin.
Russian propagandists often boast that Poland will be the next target on Putin’s list, after Ukraine.
“They [Russia] attack if they see a weak spot,” Błaszczak said last year as Poland began its spending spree.
“There will not be a stronger country in Europe (than Poland) when it comes to artillery and armoured troops.
We will be the most powerful NATO member state in Europe.
Poland has a long history of war with Russia – stretching back hundreds of years to the time of Ivan the Terrible – and has often been on the frontline defending Europe against Moscow.
The country’s armies were credited in 1920 with stopping the spread Communism to Europe after they defeated Trotsky during a battle called “The Miracle on the Vistula”.
Less than 20 years later, the joint invasion of Poland by Stalin’s Soviets and Hitler’s Nazis began the Second World War, with the country occupied by the USSR until 1989.
As a result, when Putin invaded Ukraine saying that he came to reclaim historical Russian lands last year, Warsaw’s power brokers were not under any illusions as to their own safety.
In just a few weeks, Warsaw signed a contract to purchase 250 American Abrams tank. Later, the deal was increased to 336 tanks, of which 116 were to be delivered within ten days.
Diplomats signed another agreement for 1,000 K-2 tanks with Korea, despite having traveled half the way around the world.
Once they arrive it will make Poland Europe’s largest tank force, with more armour at its disposal than every other European NATO member combined.
Poland then asked the US for 500 HIMARS systems, having watched just a handful of the long-range rocket artillery wreak havoc on Russian forces in Ukraine.
Warsaw turned once again to Korea for the missing 200 when American arm giant Lockheed Martin announced it could only provide them.
Seoul sold the army 288 K239 Chunmoo Rocket Launchers, 18 HIMARS Systems and long-range ATACMS missiles to Ukraine.
A further deal with Seoul will give Poland 48 of its FA-50 fighter jets, in addition to 32 next-generation F-35 stealth fighters it bought from America in 2020.
However, the spree of spending did not end there.
In May, Poland sent a request to the US for six new Patriot anti-air batteries, and in September bought 96 Apache attack helicopters.
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Warsaw, which has a coast on the Baltic Sea that is partially bordered with Russia, also decided to beef up its navy.
Just days after the war in Ukraine broke out, Poland sealed a £1.4bn deal with UK arms manufacturer Babcock for three new frigates.
The warships will be built in Poland and dubbed the Miecznik Class, but are effectively copycat versions of the Royal Navy’s Type 31 frigates.
The military will be recruited in greater numbers, with the aim of doubling the size of the army by 2035, from 150.000 in 2022.
In the past year, there were 16,000 new recruits – this is the highest increase of troops since 2008.
Once complete, it will give Poland the largest army in Europe by manpower, an accolade currently held by France at 200,000 troops. Britain has only 72,500 troops, compared to France’s 200,000.
Warsaw finally struck a deal with an arms manufacturer in Poland for 1400 armoured vehicles, which will carry these soldiers to battle.
This is just the beginning. More arms purchases are expected in the coming years, including a program to replace the country’s lone submarine.
Mateusz Morawiecki, Poland’s Prime Minister, summed up his plans by saying: “We must build an army so strong that it… deters the enemy by its sheer strength.
The smaller Ukrainian Army was well-armed and able to defend itself against the bigger, more barbaric Russian Army.
He said: “Good armor is like the three slingshots that David used against Goliath. “We are building a similar army.”
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, it was feared that the country could fold within days – bringing Putin’s forces to Poland’s doorstep and threatening NATO’s east flank.
In order to thwart any Kremlin attacks, the Alliance has sent more military gear throughout Europe. Finland and Sweden have also joined the Northern End of the Line.
As well as additional troops deployed to Poland, President Joe Biden announced a new permanent American base on Polish soil – pacing the country on the forefront of the push-back against Putin.
Warsaw has been among Ukraine’s staunchest military backers and has taken on the lion’s share of refugees fleeing the conflict.
It was almost as if the country had been sucked in to fighting when two farmers were killed by a Ukrainian antiaircraft rocket which went wild.
Even so, Jan Emeryk Rościszewski – Poland’s ambassador to France – has suggested Poland could enter the war if Ukraine falls.
He said, in an interview with French television earlier this year: “Either Ukraine defends its independence today or we’ll have to get into this conflict.”
Our main values which formed the foundation of our civilisation, our culture and civilization will be at risk. “We will be forced to take part in the war.”
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