Polonization increasingly obvious

Polishization may mean adapting abroad military equipment to the requirements of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland utilizing components and solutions provided by national industrial entities or replacing abroad military equipment or services with their own solution. "We only buy what we truly request abroad, and where we can, we search national solutions," Colonel Fromholz explains. "This is the situation we have in the K9 weapon system, where we have obtained only the cannon-haubice itself, and all the accompanying equipment, i.e. command wagons, ammunition trucks, weapons repair trucks, are Polish solutions," he recalls.

AU besides understands polonisation as a commitment or a desire to contractually limit the quantity of components or parts of a abroad product. This can be based on the location of production or assembly in Poland or the establishment of service and repair capabilities. "The aim is to reduce supply chains and to make national establishments independent of abroad operators as much as possible," said Colonel Robert Fromholz.

Different roads, 1 goal

‘The current offset law applies in peculiar to contracts concluded with the US Government in the form of abroad Military Sales. As it is hard for the U.S. government to require a circumstantial possible at contract level, we besides sign separate offset agreements straight with companies that own circumstantial technologies, specified as the “Wisła” program with Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, or erstwhile purchasing Apache helicopters with Boeing, General Electric, Lockheed Martin”, explains Colonel Fromholz.

Another way is to oblige the abroad supplier to transfer technology and production resources to the State Treasury, with the right to further transfer them to Polish entities. "This form, as the experience shows, is more applicable than a reasonably rigid and formalized offset," the Colonel says. This expression was used, among others, in agreements related to programs: “Narew”, Marine Rocket Units, tank K2, cannonhaubic K9, strategy of rocket artillery lobster-K and Orki.

Opel mill in Gliwice.

Another method is to make conditions for industrial cooperation in business relations. “This is possibly the most economically healthy approach from a broader point of view, since Polish and abroad industrial operators are developing optimal solutions in terms of economical and implementation”, the deputy chief of the AU believes. WB Electronics and Hanwha Aerospace cooperates as a flagship example. "Through the created peculiar intent company they are building a rocket mill for lobster-K systems from scratch," says the colonel.

Good examples

Colonel Robert Fromholz is 1 of the most satisfactory examples of poloniumization to include commitments accompanying air defence programmes. ‘In the framework of the “Narew” programme, CAMM-ER anti-aircraft missiles and launchers, with the anticipation of subsequently upgrading and offering them to another markets, will be produced under the PGZ Capital Group. The acquired know-how and cognition transfer will let for the joint improvement of a fresh rocket with an increased range, i.e. CAMM-MR, with the British side", recalls.

"As part of the offset accompanying the second phase of the “Wisła” programme, electronic circuits and cable beams will be created in the WZU to the world's newest air defence radar LTAMDS, in the PIT-Radwar antennas of its alien recognition system, while the Marine Technology investigation and improvement Centre, thanks to the cooperation with Northrop Grumman, has already become our national expert on the integration of national sensors into the IBCS system", writes Colonel Robert Fromholz and adds: "No and the latest example in the “Orka” submarine acquisition program, we have established the transfer of cognition and technology to the Polish defence manufacture in the field of MRO, which will yet let full independency in ship servicing and modernisation".

Technology absorption rate

The desire to produce elements of abroad systems alone is not enough. Plants must be prepared to usage fresh technologies, and this means the costs of building back-up and training employees. The question is whether recently acquired skills can be utilized for a intent another than participation in production related to 1 contract or not just the equipment utilized by the Polish army. In industrial sukurs comes the Agency of Armourment, which seeks to make technology transfer beneficial in the long term.

"The Armed Forces Agency depends on the degree of poloniumisation on the absorption capacity of national companies – that is, how much a peculiar entity specialising in the production of circumstantial elements of the weapon strategy can adopt fresh method solutions", says Colonel Fromholz and points out that it is simply a costly and time-consuming process, due to the fact that it frequently requires adaptation of infrastructure or preparation of human resources. "Therefore, we must be convinced that Polish entities are able to manage the economical and organisational task of absorbing fresh technologies", the Colonel reserves. In this respect, MON cooperates with the Ministry of State Acts, which is governed by the State Armed Forces.

With contracts for the transportation of equipment, AU besides negotiates conditions for the transfer of technology, "We aim at specified solutions as the provision of MRO services [Maintenance, Repair, Overhaul] for the needs of another countries, which will make them regional service centres," he notes. AU besides uses the GOCO (Government Owned – Company Operated) formula, partially borrowed from the US. Here, repair and maintenance equipment obtained from abroad suppliers, together with military equipment owned by the State Treasury, can be utilized by selected industrial entities fulfilling tasks for the army.

Offset means more work for the supplier, as well as the request to share technologies, to which not all producers – and governments – quack. "Foreign producers realize that in the current safety situation in Central and east Europe, Poland is becoming a natural logistics and service centre for the full east wing of NATO", provides the deputy chief of the AU. "In our negotiations with representatives of abroad companies we always say: look at the map and compare where Poland is and where your country is. This is crucial for knowing our needs and why we anticipate to have circumstantial capabilities in Poland”, the colonel points out.

The full process besides involves many legal issues. "The Armed Forces Agency in the current structure has no tools to supervise counterparties another than the mechanisms resulting from the contracts concluded. The contracting authority does not specify the priorities of industrial improvement or technology and critical capacity for the state. It is besides not up to him to make a defence capacity improvement strategy. A centre should so be set up to improve and unify all state-industry relations in the defence sector", considers the Deputy Head of AU.

Investment in the capabilities of the armed forces

The necessity of Polishization is seen not only by the entrepreneurs and organizational units of the MON, but besides by soldiers utilizing equipment from abroad. "From the position of the 1st Warsaw Armoured Brigade, it is crucial not only to get modern weapons, but besides to supply an efficient and accessible strategy of its maintenance throughout its lifetime. Therefore, the Polishization should include not only the participation of the national manufacture in production, but besides the improvement of skills in the field of maintenance, repair, renovation and modernization carried out in Poland", says Brigadier Maciej Strupiechowski.

WZE SA will produce energy retention modules for LTAMDS radars in Poland.

citing the experience of the exploitation of Leopard tanks and their modernization to the 2PL standard, Captain Strupiechowski points out that "the improvement of the national service and repair possible is an investment not only in the defence industry, but above all in the operational capabilities of the Polish Armed Forces and the safety of the state". According to him, it is equally crucial that the user can cooperate straight with the maker or entity liable for maintenance. "The observations and experiences of soldiers resulting from regular operation can be transmitted to the contractor more quickly, which facilitates the improvement of method solutions and more efficient resolution of emerging problems," concludes spokesperson 1 WBPanc.

Weight of competence

The acquisition of fresh competences on the occasion of global contracts is simply a condition which the Polish Armed Forces Group puts in talks with abroad partners. "We place large emphasis on developing our competences wherever possible. For example, WZL2 in Bydgoszcz was indicated as a plant in which a comprehensive modernization of F-16 Polish air force to the F-16V version will be carried out. An crucial part of our competence are the Military Motor Plant in Poznań, where we already service Leopardy and Abrams tanks. It is worth noting that in Dęblin, in the WZL1 branch in Łódź, we will service the AGT1500 turbine engines to Abrams and build the only specified centre in Europe. This shows that polonization has a very circumstantial dimension”, says president of the Polish Armed Forces Group Adam Leszkiewicz and adds that the same applies to production. “In the case of cooperation with the American company Anduril, we besides want the installation and production of Barracuda-500 missiles to take place at our place,” she says. And although there are more examples for Polonicization, the head of the PGZ-et does not hide that there are besides contracts where the scope of the Polonicization is small, as in the case of the ships of the Swordfish, but besides stresses that "we are already seeking to entrust our PGZ to the Naval Shipyard the service of submarines that will arise in the program “Orka”.

Private companies besides focus on gaining competence through cooperation with abroad suppliers. "Participation in the provision of rockets for lobster-K systems is an entry for the WB Group to a narrow number of European manufacturers capable of producing precision rocket ammunition. This programming of the building of competences, which the Polish defence manufacture has not yet had," noted WB spokesperson Remigius Wilk.

He besides notes the change in the approach of abroad contractors to the request of Polishization: "The trend of expanding openness is clearly seen – abroad producers increasingly treat technology transfer and local production as standard elements of offers directed to Poland". Wilk emphasizes that this is due to both the scale of Polish orders and expectations formulated by the Armed Forces Agency and MON.

Contracts concluded without specified a request may occur. This was the case with the acquisition of F-35, made in 2020. To join the programme on an industrial partnership basis it was besides late, the proposed MON offset considered not promising. The hotel besides pointed out that thanks to the lower price obtained at the expense of offsets, more equipment could be purchased and the offset cost was estimated at $1.1 billion in this case. In 2025 the maker F-35 – Lockheed Martin – expressed his willingness to make a training centre in Poland for the operation of these machines, not only for the needs of Polish air force. The declaration was made at last year's fair.