Poland on Tuesday said it had signed a contract to purchase more than 200 anti-radar missiles from the United States for $745 million as part of its army’s modernisation drive.
Since Russia’s invasion of neighbouring Ukraine, NATO-member Poland has accelerated its attempts to bring its armed forces into the 21st century.
It has ramped up its military spending and sealed a series of military equipment acquisition deals, mostly with the United States and South Korea.
According to a statement from the Polish defence ministry Tuesday’s contract is for the delivery of AGM-88G AARGM-ER air-to-surface rockets, fired from fighter jets to target air defence radar systems on the ground.
With a range of more than 200 kilometres (125 miles), the weapons will allow the Polish air force’s F-16 and upcoming F-35 fighter planes to seek and destroy radar systems from outside the range of the anti-aircraft batteries protecting them.
The missiles will be delivered between 2029 and 2035, the defence ministry statement added.
Poland will spend 4.7 percent of its output on defence this year, well in excess of the two-percent NATO minimum.
Its army numbers 200,000 soldiers, making it the Atlantic alliance’s third largest after those of the United States and Turkey and the biggest in the European Union.
