The U.S. State Department has approved a possible Foreign Military Sale to Poland of Javelin missile systems and associated support, at an estimated value of $780 million.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of the planned sale on 18 September 2025.
Poland has requested 2,506 FGM-148F Javelin missiles and 253 Javelin Lightweight Command Launch Units. The package also includes simulation rounds, battery coolant units, tool kits, spare parts, training, technical assistance, and transportation.
According to the DSCA, “this proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security of the United States by improving the security of a NATO Ally that is a force for political and economic stability in Europe.”
The agency said the deal would allow Poland to upgrade its legacy launch units and increase its defence inventory, reinforcing its ability to protect its territory and contribute to NATO operations. The sale “will not alter the basic military balance in the region,” it added.
RTX Corporation of Arlington, Virginia, and Lockheed Martin of Tucson, Arizona, have been named as the principal contractors. No offset arrangements have yet been proposed, with any agreements to be negotiated directly between Poland and industry.
The DSCA confirmed that implementation of the deal would not require additional U.S. personnel to be deployed.
Poland over the last few years has massively ramped up modernising its military. But I do have to wonder how are they going to keep paying for this new kit?
the biggest problem for Poland is that they have not provisioned for lifecycle costs: maintenance, etc… seeing as that usually adds to multiple times the acquisition costs.
so Poland will have many jets, tanks etc… except in 5 years they won’t be operational.
That’s a bit of a stretch. Poland is retiring old kit and all new contracts come with manufacturer support.
it may surprise you. even if it is a standard practice de facto, but not in this case with recent binge shopping spree of last few years. this has been acknowledged by the polish governmernt themselves
ie on recent tanks, vehicles… in fact they still are in the process of finalizing financing with the remainder of Korean purchases. and that just covers purchase and setting up some TOT for local assembly.
Poland economy is booming, and been helped further by Brexit. I suspect they are assuming their economy will grow to cover it. Although I hear that wages are also booming and it’s becoming less attractive a place for multinationals to put operations so that boom might not last.
Current projections put Poland’s GDP passing the UK by 2030.
2030s not 2030, probably late in the decade
GDP per capita maybe, but not GDP total.
Poland has one of the worst demographic crises in Europe as a result of a very low birth rate, but coupled with a relatively high emigration rate. It’s impressive recent GDP growth will not continue beyond the short term.
It’s had a boost in recent years with a large influx of well educated and cultuarally similar Ukranian refugees, but unless Russia wins and another Ukranian exodus occurs, that won’t be repeated.
That growth rate started before the war, and the influx of Ukrainians will help with it. It’s the reverse scenario of the UK we are actively discouraging young people to come to the country to work. They are the future power houses of western economies as they tend to retire back home and it’s older ages where people are the biggest strain on the economy.
They however have the issue of raising wages, which might push firms to relocate over time to cheaper countries
The growth started about 25 years ago, from a very low base. They have righly focused on STEM education and had strict immigration policies to avoid low skilled and low wage economics.
The UK is not actively discouraging people from coming to the UK to work, and certainly has nowehre near the same levels of restrictive immigration policies as Poland. Only about 20-25% of UK immigrants are on work visas; most of the the rest are family members or students. And even those that are coming here to work, most are in ‘skills shortage’ occupations, like care workers who are very low paid, and therefore an economic drain to the taxpayer (companies like it though as it’s cheap labour) as they are much more likely to claim housing benefit, universal credit, etc. And evesecond and third generation immigrants in some culturally very dissimilar communities are nowhere near achieving the same rates of economic output as the general population. This acts as a net drag on the country’s finances, and reduces the available monies to spend on public services. We all get a watered down service as a result.
Only a small proportion of people are net tax contributors over their lifetime, maybe 20%, and those people tend to be earning upwards of £65k. Those are the only people that we should be allowing to migrate to the UK. And that person should not be allowed to bring a non-working spouse into the country, as that drastically alters the equation and would mean that family is again a net drain on public finances.
Immigration can be a good thing if done right. But our current system in the UK is far off the mark.
That’s not even vaguely supported by the data. Whole sectors of our economy is badly struggling from the NHS, care homes, hospitality, farming because of lack of seasonal workers coming from eastern Europe and southern Asia. Cutting off low paid workers is hitting the economy badly.
What data are you referring to?
The UK government should not be subsidising the low wages of staff brought into this country for the sake of shareholders in care companies. They only worry about their own profit. UK plc has to deal with the other ill effects – housing shortages, public service provision etc.
At least the Pols take defence seriously .
Quite. They of all people know the real cost of not doing so.
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not an expert, but whilst javelin is a fantastic piece of kit, isn’t it a bit passé with current situation going on in ukraine and a very expensive one at that. and thats before you ask the question, does russia even have that many javelin targets left.
Not really my bag to be fair however, does the UK produce its own missiles ?
Yes – plenty under the MBDA Umbrella.