The United States announced on Tuesday that it approved the sale of $ 1.33 billion (1.17 billion euros) of air defense missiles in Poland. The package includes 400 AIM-2020D missiles in medium-range.
In addition, Warsaw will also receive guidance systems, spare parts, shipping containers, as well as access to American software necessary to operate the missiles.
The US State Department approved the possible sale and the American Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said that it had provided the notifications necessary for the Congress for additional approval.
“The proposed sale will improve Poland's ability to respond to current and future threats by providing air defense to protect Polish and allied forces in the transition or combat and considerably improves the Polish contribution to NATO requirements,” the DSCA said in a statement.
Washington says that the sale is in accordance with its foreign policy objectives to ensure their allies, in particular those of NATO, who act as a “force for political and economic stability in Europe”.
The sale comes while Warsaw seeks to achieve its objectives of increasing defense expenses at 5% of GDP by next year, a key demand from US President Donald Trump for NATO members.
Trump regularly criticized Europe for its lack of emphasis on its defense and its low expenses for the military and the defense. He also accused the longtime cross-Atlantic allies of Washington of “folding” in the United States through NATO for its safety.
Last week, Estonia, also a member of NATO, announced an invoice of several billion euros in additional defense expenses. The new bill will see the country of the Baltic reaching the required threshold of Trump, putting the country close to Russia at around 5.4% of GDP in defense expenses.
Poland says that it is determined to increase military investments to better prepare for any potential threat following the invasion of Russia on the scale of Ukraine in February 2022.
