Poland

According to official data provided by Poland’s parliamentary committee of national defence, the defence budget of 2016, was to reach 35.89 billion Polish Zloty -PLN- (approximately 8.5 billion US dollars), a rise of 8.6%, compared to the previous year. As of 2016, Polish authorities are committed to spend 2% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on defence, instead of 1.95% spent until 2016. With the implementation of the 2016 defence budget, Poland is set to join a handful of NATO members, who meet the alliance's target of investing at least 2% of national GDP on defence. Expenses on military and civilian personnel, represent 23.4% of the total military budget, accounting for 8.281 billion PLN (approximately 2 billion US dollars), while capital investment represents 28.9%, hence some 10.247 billion PLN (approximately 2.4 billion US dollars). Pensions and other Operational and Maintenance (O&M) expenditures, as well as training expenses, represent 20.7% and 17.4% of the total military budget, respectively.

According to official data provided by Poland’s parliamentary committee of national defence, the defence budget of 2016, was to reach 35.89 billion Polish Zloty -PLN- (approximately 8.5 billion US dollars), a rise of 8.6%, compared to the previous year. As of 2016, Polish authorities are committed to spend 2% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on defence, instead of 1.95% spent until 2016. With the implementation of the 2016 defence budget, Poland is set to join a handful of NATO members, who meet the alliance's target of investing at least 2% of national GDP on defence. Expenses on military and civilian personnel, represent 23.4% of the total military budget, accounting for 8.281 billion PLN (approximately 2 billion US dollars), while capital investment represents 28.9%, hence some 10.247 billion PLN (approximately 2.4 billion US dollars). Pensions and other Operational and Maintenance (O&M) expenditures, as well as training expenses, represent 20.7% and 17.4% of the total military budget, respectively.

The main priorities of the 2016 budget are the sustainment and development of Polish armed forces operational capabilities, the improvement of cyber security & cyber defence capabilities and the increase of the armed forces ability to fulfil missions in accordance with international (NATO) standards.

Poland’s accession to NATO has benefited the county as it was somehow obliged to purchase military equipment that would be in accordance with the requirements/ technical specifications of the alliance. Additionally, Poland was able to take part in the alliance’s programs, such as the Strategic Airlift Capability (SAC) C-17, an international initiative under which the 12 participant nations, acquired, manage, support and operate, three Boeing C-17 strategic transport aircraft. The first C-17 was delivered in July 2009, the second in September and the third in October of 2009.

The aircraft operate out of Pápa Air Base in Hungary, and are open to use by the participating nations. The participants include ten NATO nations (Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and the United States) and two Partnership for Peace (PfP) nations (Finland and Sweden).  

In 2015, the defence budget’s structure was more or less the same as that of 2016. More specifically, expenses on military and civilian personnel represented 20.7% of the total military budget, accounting for 7.9 billion PLN (approximately 1.88 billion US dollars), while capital investment represented 36.2%, hence 13.77 billion Zlotys (approximately 3.26 billion US dollars). Finally, Pensions and other Operational and Maintenance (O&M) expenditures accounted for 19.4% and 14.9% of the total military budget, respectively.

Throughout the years, spending on capital investment has significantly increased. In 2008, 3.4 billion PLN (approximately 806 million US dollars) were spent on capital investments, representing 17.3% of the total defence budget. In 2009, this number increased to 4.8 billion PLN (approximately 1.1 billion US dollars), amounting to 20.9% of the total budget, while in 2010, 5.5 billion PLN (approximately 1.3 billion US dollars) were spent on capital investments, representing 22.2% of the total defence budget. This upward trend continued, as the 2015 budget allocated 12.7 billion Zlotys (approximately 3 billion US dollars), while the 2016 budget allocated 10.2 billion PLN (approximately 2.4 billion US dollars) in this direction.   

In the years to come, Poland is planning to procure a wide variety of defence equipment and to modernise several others. According to Katarzyna Jakubowska, the acting spokesperson for the ministry, Poland is going to procure in the future, new air defence systems, UAVs, multi-purpose helicopters, coastal defence vessels, mine destroyers and submarines.

Under this context, in October 2016, SAAB signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa (PGZ) that foresees, close cooperation between Saab and PGZ in the planning and delivery of Polish naval programs, including surface ships and submarines construction for the Polish Navy and export customers. SAAB is already present in the country, as it provides Sea Giraffe radars and the RBS15 Mk 3 missiles for the Orkan vessels.

Additionally, one Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided missile frigate, has undergone an extensive repair program, which was concluded in 2015. The Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates (2 in total) are in service with the Polish Navy since 2000 and were formerly servicing in the US Navy.

In September 2016, Poland signed an agreement with Rheinmetall to modernise 128 Polish Leopard 2 A4 tanks to the new Leopard 2 PL standard. In order to materialise this contract Rheinmetall will form an industrial consortium with Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa (PGZ) and ZM Bumar-Łabędy S.A. The consortium is expected to supply a prototype at the end of 2017, while the retrofit of the remaining MBTs (Main Battle Tanks) will be finished by 2020.  

Finally, in 2015, the Polish Ministry of National Defence, placed an additional order for 200 8x8 Armoured Modular Vehicles (AMV), with Patria’s Polish partner Rosomak S.A. Patria will deliver components for 200 vehicles to Rosomak S.A., which produces the vehicles under license from Patria. Deliveries will take place during the period 2015-2019 and the total value of the order will reach 90 million Euros.