Who's gonna pay for the armor?

Poland will be armed! quite a few weapons were purchased from the U.S. under the Law and Justices, but the Americans did not sale electronic systems that could disable all of this.

The same "genius" from the PiS bought tanks, cannonhaubics and aircraft from South Korea. The problem is, there's no weapons for these planes, and South Korea no longer produces them. A separate problem is ammunition. A advanced government official, possibly from the National safety Bureau, said that this ammunition would last 2 weeks of war.

I remember years ago erstwhile I was president of Steel Wola, at a gathering at the Huta of Stalowa Wola, leaving the PM's area Donald Tusk He patted me in the shoulder and said "Mr. president of Russia will not come". Today, an crucial politician in the next Tusk government convinces that the coming of Russians is inevitable. And I think to myself that another Polish ruling teams are making all effort to get the Russians to come here.

I have already written on these pages that if something can go incorrect in Poland, it will go wrong. I'm afraid that's the case with those weapons. Weapons are expected to be the driving wheel of the economy. The armaments are not only meant to make a boom in industry, but besides to modernise this industry. Yes, there are examples of that. However, the sense of arms is primarily an economical dimension. Without the economical effect of arms, they can lead to a collapse of the economy and there are besides strong examples of this. Arms that do not produce a affirmative economical effect usually gotta lead to war, and then war, if it is victorious, provides a affirmative economical effect, due to the fact that it exploits the defeated economically.

We must now ask about the economical dimension of arms in Poland. There are 3 sources of arms financing. The first is private capital, which invests its own funds. There is no specified thing in Poland on a crucial scale. The second is your borrowing. This is happening on a very large scale in Poland. Third, it's taxes that rise arms. This is happening in Poland, but not yet on a large scale. In the Second Republic, there was 1 more origin of arms financing, which was the generosity of society in the form of donations to the National Defence Fund. I believe that this form of arms financing in the 3rd Poland is not an option. I do not mention money from the European Union, due to the fact that if they are, it will be a debt which Poland will gotta pay back.

It should be pointed out at erstwhile that reinforcements make economical sense if the weapons produced can be sold outside. In this respect, Poland is in a very bad situation. Only a fewer years ago, Poland exported little weapons than Bulgaria, which does not belong to military tycoons. The arms trade marketplace is very difficult. The spheres of influence have long been divided here and jealously guarded by the largest exporters, namely the USA, Russia or China. Not only its producers are active in arms exports, but governments and peculiar services. So far there is no specified thing in Poland.

We have any historical experiences in this area from the period II of Poland and the creation of the Central Industrial District. The COP was primarily an arms project, financed by loans that had to be repaid. They were paid with a gun. It was said that this exported weapon was missing during the 1939 German assault, but that is another problem. Unlike the II Polish Republic, the III Polish Republic has small chance to repay loans for the acquisition and production of arms exports. And here I go to the native land to the largest Polish maker of weapons, that is, to Huta Stalowa Wola.

Well, HSW has not exported any weapons for many, many years. The existence of a abroad trade department in this company is simply a joke, but that is not the main problem in this respect. The main problem is the costs and the final price. As far as I know, the cost in HSW is limited. As a result, a beautiful good weapon costs so much that it has a mediocre chance of any abroad army buying it. I heard, although I can't confirm that the Norwegians were curious in buying a “Krab” cannonohabic, but after reading the price they resigned, although it is possibly a very rich customer. HSW is simply a state-owned company with all politicisation and another burdens on specified companies. I don't think there's much to number on for specified companies to pay the essential attention to the cost of production.

As regards the expansion of the arms manufacture in Poland, we request to consider solving the next problem. Since arms exports have alternatively mediocre prospects, and the Polish army has limited opportunities to absorb extended production, what will happen to these factories erstwhile the threat of war ceases? Currently, what a steelworks or machinery plant has problems, their solution is seen in the transition to arms production. Clearly there's no thought who's going to fund it or what.

The acquisition of arms abroad and our own, costly production, financed from loans and taxation increases will be a immense burden on the economy, not having a affirmative effect. This must reduce the standard of surviving of the population and increase costs. This should be said reasonably to the public.

The expansion and modernization of the army are costly and long-term processes. It seems that almost the full period of the existence of the 3rd Republic of Poland did not count. What is now being done seems to be chaotic and unthinkable, which will only increase economical problems. In Stalowa Wola, it now looks like companies producing and exporting so far, thus supplying state money, which goes for reinforcements, slows down workers or stops receptions. All the time, HSW employees are taking on HSW, whose costs are increasing, and the production is being bought by the state for taxes on companies that are having expanding problems. If this mechanics continues to work like this, it won't end well.

Andrzej Szlezak