Information is an component of defence. This is crucial in the face of disinformation, which lowers our safety level," said Deputy Prime Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz at a conference summarizing 10 months of the current coalition's rule. The head of the National Defence Ministry besides presented plans for the close future.
A conference was held at the Ministry of Defence on Friday, at which the Ministry's management presented a study on the actions taken within 10 months of the current coalition's rule. They were presented by Deputy Prime Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz and Deputy Ministers Cezary Tomczyk, Paweł Bejda, Stanisław Wzątek and Paweł Zalewski. – Our political opponents stressed and stressed that we would reduce the number of soldiers. However, we proceed to increase the number of the Polish Army," said Deputy Prime Minister Kosiniak-Kamish. As he reported, Poland has already overtaken France in terms of the number of soldiers in service and now has a 3rd NATO army, after the United States and Turkey. At the end of the year, the number of Polish troops is to be over 207 thousand.
This is primarily possible by ensuring a unchangeable financing of defence spending. In 2023 Poland spent PLN 137 billion, which represented 3.9% of GDP. In 2024 expenditure increased to over 158 billion (4.2% of GDP). As Kosiniak-Kamysz emphasized, the budget for this year was prepared by the erstwhile government, and the current government made only amendments (including writing there salary increases). – The Council of Ministers presented the draft budget bill to the Sejm next year. It contains a evidence defence budget, for the safety of the Polish state: PLN 186.6 billion – said the head of the MON. This is about 4.7% of GDP and this is the highest rate in NATO. The Deputy Prime Minister did not regulation out that he would proceed to grow in the following years, according to the needs of the Polish Army and the requirements of the safety situation.
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When presenting financial data, the head of the Defence Ministry stressed that many of the arms contracts concluded in the erstwhile word did not take into account all the costs associated with the full lifecycle of military equipment and had no long-term backing provided. – We are talking about a giant hole, which we called the “Błaszczak hole”. The Minister said for many years everything was ready and buttoned. It didn't work," said Kosiniak-Kamish. – Half a trillion zlotys, we estimation the shortcomings – he added. This amount consists of the essential costs for each contract, including training, construction of infrastructure or acquisition of ammunition and weapons modules.
According to Deputy Prime Minister Kosiniak-Kamysz, from the beginning of office of the current government, about 100 contracts have been concluded, along with annexes and the usage of the right of options to already implemented orders, worth over PLN 120 billion. “We do not break contracts, we analyse them and improve them,” said Kosiniak-Kamish. We don't act like our predecessors who broke them. An example was a broken contract on helicopters, which would be very useful during the flood," he added. The head of the MON meant here contract for transportation of French multitask Caracal helicopters. The conclusion of negotiations on this issue in 2016 and the annulment of the proceedings is simply a decision of the government of Beata Szydło. The reason was that the offset value of the device maker was to differ.
According to the Minister of Defence, 50 more contracts are to be signed for the transportation of equipment to the military by the end of the year. These include K2 tanks, ammunition for Abrams tanks, support vehicles for lobster-K sets, Borsuk combat vehicles, Krab cannonhaubice, MQ-9B SkyGuardian unmanned set, and Rosomak transporters. The Deputy Prime Minister assured that the ministry would proceed to respect the rule that at least 50% of expenditure would be invested in the country. – We are putting a sign of equality between the state and private arms industry. We are pleased if Polish private and state-owned manufacture is developing its production capacity and we will surely support this direction," said Deputy Minister Bejda.
As Deputy Minister Tomczyk stressed, MON supplemented the acquisition and investment plan with an area that was neglected in the erstwhile term. It's about the soldiers' individual equipment. To this end, the General Staff of the Polish Army launched Operation Szpejdesigned to replace the old kind of equipment and saturate troops with modern uniforms, optical and thermal sights, radio stations or helmets. This will increase not only the comfort of the regular service of soldiers, but besides the safety of its performance.
‘Phenix’ and "Safe Floors" are 2 operations in which the Polish Army is active in parallel. The first concerns assistance in rebuilding areas affected by flooding in south-western Poland. The second aims to support the Border defender and seal the border with Belarus. Another task discussed at today's conference is to implement National Fear and Defence Programme “Tarcza East”. The programme involves building a network of fortifications, ground obstacles, bunkers and reconnaissance systems at the border with Russia and Belarus, which are designed to importantly strengthen its defence. MON estimated the cost of the task to be PLN 10 billion, and its completion is planned for 2028. “In the next 3 weeks, we will be able to carry out the first tests of the elements of the “Hard East” on military ground. And inactive this year we will begin building the first elements on the northern and east border – said Deputy Minister Cezary Tomczyk.
– If we are talking about the "Błaszczak hole" today, she has besides acted in relations with our allies," said Paweł Zalewski, who in the ministry is liable for the global policy of MON. – This is simply a question of distrust of Poland. We remember this scandalous rally at the NATO Counterintelligence Center, which seriously undermined our credibility," the Deputy Minister said. In 2015, the Ministry of Defence dismissed Colonel Krzysztof Soul from the position of manager of the Centre and at night from 17 to 18 December replaced the management of the facility.
As an example of rebuilding the appropriate relations, Paweł Zalewski gave talks at the NATO summit in Washington, D.C. and the decisions made there. "We have maintained and strengthened a common allied assessment of the threat from Russia, but besides of various hybrid actions, including those at our border," Zalewski mentioned.
The ministry's activities besides included programmes calculated to educate pro-defensive attitudes in society. “New forms of military training were needed, fresh forms of generating in us all, in citizens, but especially in young people a sense of patriotism,” said Deputy Minister Stanisław Wzątek. In this regard, there were classes from the "Train with the Army" series, which included 25 1000 Poles. “This is besides “Education with the Army”, a pilot program in which we cooperate perfectly with the Ministry of National Education,” added the Deputy Minister. As part of this program, students of primary and secondary schools learned, among others, the principles of emergency management, learned alarm signals and perpetuated first aid techniques. presently recruitment is ongoingwho want to teach specified lessons this school year.
