The military has identified priorities

Building half a million armed forces is simply a strategical objective Polish Army for the coming years. They will be created by both the professional army, territorial defence, sub-cholers, and the reserve. “We will put force on the reserve this year, the reserve of advanced readiness”, said Deputy Prime Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz. In this context, he besides pointed to the improvement of universal defence training for civilians. As key to military development, the head of the MON besides mentioned programs concerning the improvement of drones and anti-drone systems, space technologies, artificial intelligence and long-term precise destruction. "These matters are absolutely crucial, not only for 2026, but for many years," he said.
As stressed by the head of the MON to build a half-million-dollar army, unchangeable and advanced backing is needed. He recalled that this year's defence budget is PLN 200 billion. – This is the highest budget always allocated to the Polish army. It is 3 times larger than in 2022 and almost twice as advanced as in 2023," the Minister of Defence pointed out. He besides talked about the advantages of the SAFE programme, which allows EU countries to receive low-interest defence loans. Poland is the biggest beneficiary of this program, and the money from SAFE will be utilized to buy weapons and upgrade the army.

– Contracts have not been missing recently. However, modernisation requires continuity. I have accepted the rule that we do not deviate from previously concluded agreements, as has been the case in history, but we proceed them, correct shortcomings, fill gaps and guarantee the stableness of the process. The Polish army does not change in 1 year, 1 parliamentary word – Kosiniak-Kamish reminded.

Ukraine and alliances from north to south

The head of the MON besides indicated 2 safety vectors on the east flank: the northern, i.e. the Baltic Sea and the strategical partnership with Scandinavia and the Baltics, and the southern, i.e. relations with Turkey and Romania, taking into account all Polish neighbours from the EU and NATO. Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz besides mentioned strong cooperation with the United States and in an industrial context with South Korea.

During the meeting, the Minister of Defence devoted much attention to the issue of support for Ukraine and announced a fresh installment of relations with Kiev. “It is about reshaping the model of support from the first months of the war towards a more cooperative cooperation, based on the exchange of experiences, especially in the area of drones, unmanned systems and the usage of fresh technologies, including artificial intelligence”, said Kosinik-Kamish. He besides added that he expected the President's support on this matter.

2025 years of transformation

– The past year was the year of the largest in the past of the country of transformation of armed forces – as General Wiesław Kukuła, the head of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces, summed up last month. In this context, he mentioned, among others, the increase in the number of armed forces, the accomplishment by the II Polish Corps of the ability to command allied and national operations, or the accomplishment of readiness by the first module of the Patriot system.

Then gene. Kukuła pointed out the directions of allied cooperation and key areas of modernisation and capacity building for the coming months. He stressed that the basis is combat preparedness and maintaining the ability to react. He mentioned, among others, emergency operations and public support. "In this direction we will proceed to engage up to 10,000 soldiers a day," he added. He besides talked about support for Ukraine, which this year will be conducted somewhat differently than in erstwhile years. – First of all, we focus on training Ukrainian soldiers, but besides on military advice, providing equipment and its servicing and maintaining logistics hub in Rzeszów – he mentioned.

As a historical General Wiesław Kukuła defined the first aircraft landing in Poland for this year F-35 Husarz. As he said, the armed forces will gain the ability to decide our advantage in the event of a conflict.

President: Russia will test our immunity

During the briefing, president Karol Nawrocki spoke, pointing out that building the armed forces and their improvement is his priority. “Even if the conflict in Ukraine changes its intensity, [...] we gotta deal with a series of incidents, incidents below the war threshold that will test our resilience,” said the commander of the armed forces.

Referring to SAFE program, indicated that Poland must be certain that the measures will not be suspended or suspended. He called for a debate in this area and judged it appropriate to disclose a list of 139 projects to be implemented under this programme.

The president besides talked about reforming the management and command system. "I look forward to continuing the work and finalising the reform," he said. "The introduction of changes evidently requires the correction of the war command strategy and consequently the implementation of a uniform command strategy for armed forces," said Karol Nawrocki.

Deputy Prime Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamish declared that he would ask the commanders to prepare a possible timetable for the improvement of the command system.

The military superior besides spoke of preparations for the fresh National safety Strategy. As he pointed out, the work on the fresh strategy is coming to an end in cooperation with the National safety Office. “The task will shortly be submitted to the government,” he added. He besides announced the alleged safety constitution. “The creation of a catalogue of the essential legislative changes to be introduced together with implementing papers to the National safety Strategy,” said Karol Nawrocki. He besides pointed out the request to accelerate the implementation of systemic changes in the rules governing purchases for the military.

The president announced that in the second decade of March he planned a briefing with the leadership of the Ministry of Defence and the most crucial commanders of the armed forces. The subject is to discuss Polish Armed Forces improvement Programme for the period 2025–2039.