Soldiers of Bravo Battery, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Air Defense Artillery Regiment set up a Patriot missile launcher. Photo: US Army.
Poland will buy advanced Patriot missile defense systems worth up to $15 billion in a deal announced Wednesday by the Pentagon.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency said the sale would involve up to 48 Patriot PAC-3 launchers and up to 644 Patriot PAC-3 MSE missiles, along with radars and control components for the systems.
The agency said the State Department, which has authority over US arms export deals, had approved the sale, which will provide Warsaw with some of the most advanced US air defense systems.
“The proposed sale will improve Poland’s missile defense capability and contribute to Poland’s military goals of updating capability while further enhancing interoperability with the United States and other allies,” the agency said in a statement.
The Patriots are designed for use against incoming high-speed missiles and aircraft.
NATO member states in eastern Europe, such as Poland, have been scrambling to boost their defense capabilities since Russia invaded Ukraine in February of last year.
Patriot missiles have proven highly effective in protecting Ukraine from Russian air attacks, even bringing down Moscow’s tactical ballistic and advanced hypersonic missiles.
The U.S. State Department has approved a possible $15 billion sale to Poland of an integrated air and missile defense system that includes the U.S. Army’s 360-degree threat detection sensor, which is still in development, according to a June 28 announcement.
The sale, according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, would include the RTX-made Patriot Configuration-3+ with modernized sensors and components including 48 Patriot launch stations; 644 Lockheed Martin-manufactured Patriot Advanced Capability-3 Missile Segment Enhancement missiles; and 12 Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensors, or LTAMDS, which RTX is developing for the U.S. Army.
Amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of neighboring Ukraine, Poland is clambering to buy high-end defense capabilities. It reached an agreement with the U.S. in 2018 to buy RTX-made Patriot systems bolstered by an advanced battle command system that the U.S. Army was still developing.
Poland’s first order, which includes two Patriot Configuration-3+ batteries, came with a $4.75 billion price tag. As part of the deal, Northrop Grumman delivered two firing batteries of its Integrated Battle Command System, which was delivered to Poland earlier this year and will be operational by the end of the summer. Poland will be the first country to operationalize IBCS, ahead of the U.S. Army, which funded and oversaw the development of the Northrop-made system.
IBCS is not included in this latest potential deal.
The possible sale marks the entrance of the second phase of Poland’s pursuit to establish a robust midrange air defense capability under its Wisla program. Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak announced in May 2022 that his country would launch that second phase of the program, which would cover the acquisition of three divisions — or six batteries of the Patriot system to include the U.S. Army’s LTAMDS, which is still in the prototyping phase.
The Army has struggled with the LTAMDS prototype delivery schedule. RTX ran into problems building the first radars during the pandemic, but the service still aims to deliver at least four of them by the end of 2023. An operational assessment of the sensor is expected in the latter portion of fiscal 2024.
