Secure Poland and safe Poles

“Safe Poland comes from military security and defense security, but it is possible only on the basis of the foundation of safe finances”, said the Prime Minister. As he added, “the Polish army must be based on the state-of-art technologies and must be effective.”

The Head of the Government remarked that Polish weapons are proving their effectiveness in Ukraine today. These are weapons manufactured, also for money coming form the state budget. He also reminded an old maxim – To modernize an army one needs three things: money, money, and also more money.

“There is no strong country without strong army. But a strong army can only grow on the foundation of a strong Polish state that is financially efficient. The kind we are currently building” stressed the Prime Minister.

More soldiers and arms

Since 2015, the number of soldiers in the Polish Armed Forces has increased from 95 thousand to over 140 thousand. In connection with the war in Ukraine, we want to increase this number even more - to about 300 thousand soldiers. It will be approximately 250 thousand professional soldiers and approximately 50 thousand. soldiers of the Territorial Defence Forces.

At the end of 2022, defence expenditure will reach 2.4% GDP, which significantly exceeds the minimum NATO requirements (2% of GDP for defence). This puts Poland among the leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization when it comes to military expenditures.

As a result of our actions, next year defence expenditures will increase to 3% GDP. In 2015, they amounted to PLN 37.1 billion, and we have planned PLN 97.4 billion in the 2023 state budget for this purpose. Additionally, we will allocate PLN 30-40 billion to arms procurement. We focus on equipment produced by Polish arms factories, but we also look at modern solutions offered by foreign manufacturers.

PZL - Świdnik SA

PZL-Świdnik, established in 1951, manufactured and delivered over 7,400 helicopters to customers in over 40 countries worldwide. Through PZL-Świdnik Poland is one of 5 EU member states which can boast the capability to design, manufacture, develop and support helicopters on their own.

PZL-Świdnik has approx. 2600 employees, including 550 engineers and cooperates with ca. 1000 Polish enterprises. PZL-Świdnik is a key partner of the Polish Ministry of Defense – 80% of helicopters supplied to the MND in the last 10 years have been produced in Świdnik facilities. Since 2010 PZL-Świdnik has been Leonardo Helicopters company, part of Leonardo Group - a global high-tech company that is among the ten largest players in the world in the aerospace, defense, and security sectors.