Poland strengthen his defense with billions of dollars

by Hans Izaak Kriek*

They made a deal with US defense contractor Raytheon, which would see Poland buy eight Patriot missile defense systems, is expected to finalised in November of this year. The Patriot missiles are Israeli-made. The Polish Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz signed a memorandum that said Poland get the most modern configuration missiles. I got this information after the visit of President Donald Trump to Poland. 

Considering ongoing tensions in eastern Europe following Russia's occupation of Crimea and the ongoing fighting in Ukraine, Poland has been modernising its military, spending over 14,5 billion dollars on acquiring new weapons and military equipment, including new aerial defense systems. The deal with US defense contractor Raytheon, is expected to be finalised in November this year.

The visit of President Trump was a big success in Poland, he founds a rare European friend in this nation, a country governed by its own nationalistic government and encouraged by the new US president’s intention to shake up the global political order. The leader of Poland ruling law and Justice Party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, meanwhile, touted Trump’s visit as a major source of pride for the country. “We have new success, Trump’s visit,” the conservative said.

 

President Donald Trump held a powerful speech in Warsaw. He said that Western civilisation was at risk of decline, bringing a message about ‘radical Islamic terrorism’ and ‘the creep of government bureaucracy’ to a European capital he views as hospitable to his nationalist message. Trump: “West’s will to survive is fundamental question of our time.” He declared the paramount importance of defending our values, protecting our borders, building strong families, and preserving Western civilisation. It was a speech that could have been given by President Ronald Reagan, reminiscent of Reagan’s historic ‘Tear Down This Wall’ speech.

The Poland’s government was very pleased by the speech and visit of Trump special about his words of thanking Poland for being one of the few NATO members that makes its full financial contributions of alliance, 2% of its GDP.

 

The memorandum of intent signed with the United States to buy the weapons system along with interceptor missiles from Israel's David Sling missile defense system is a deal worth close to 8 billion dollars. Israel's Rafael Advanced Defense Systems admit that the company would make an estimated 1 billion from the deal, making it one of the largest deals ever signed. Once the deal is signed, Poland will become the first export client of David Sling's interceptor missile. 

Business is business; Warsaw insisted that the Patriot system is configured to use the Israeli missile due to its superior performance at only 10% of the cost of the American Patriot missile, which is designed to intercept tactical ballistic missiles, tow flying cruise missiles as well aircraft. While a Patriot missile costs 4,5 million dollars, a David Sling missile costs 450,000 dollars. 

The relation between European leaders and the US President is slowly ameliorating since Trump in the wings of the G20 summit, finally, embraced the NATO principle of collective defense, the so-called Article 5 doctrine. We saw the new President of France, Emmanuel Macron, becoming friends with the Donald. Warm handshakes and back patting in public and taking together the salute on Bastille Day, the day that beginning of the French Revolution in 1789 on July 14th. This year was on the same day also commemorate that 100 years ago US soldiers entered World War I. 

Trump and Macron shared nice words about the relations between France and the US. Macron: “We underlined many shared convictions and, most important, the joint roadmap to work together. When it comes to fighting terrorism, from day one, I can say we’ve see eye-to-eye. We have a shared determination.”

*Hans Izaak Kriek is international political commentator for European Business Review and editor-in-chief of Kriek Media