Poland Signs Massive $15 Billion Defence Package to Expand Army Firepower and Mobility

Poland has signed one of the largest defence procurement packages in its modern history, awarding nearly 60 billion PLN in SAFE-funded contracts linked to Huta Stalowa Wola and Polish defence industry partners. The package covers a wide range of land systems, including additional Borsuk infantry fighting vehicles, Krab self-propelled howitzers, Rak self-propelled mortars, Homar-K support vehicles, K9PL support vehicles, Waran command vehicles and additional Baobab-K mine-laying systems. Deliveries are expected to be completed by the end of 2030.

The agreements were signed at Huta Stalowa Wola under the European Union’s SAFE initiative, which is intended to strengthen European defence production and accelerate military readiness. For Warsaw, the contracts are not only about acquiring more weapons. They are also part of a wider strategy to expand domestic industrial capacity, keep defence spending inside the Polish economy and prepare the Polish Armed Forces for a more dangerous security environment on NATO’s eastern flank.

A major part of the package is the order for 146 additional Borsuk infantry fighting vehicles, valued at around 7.5 billion PLN net. Developed by Huta Stalowa Wola, the Borsuk is one of Poland’s most important domestic land systems and is designed to replace older Soviet-era infantry fighting vehicles. The vehicle uses the ZSSW-30 remotely operated turret and is built to transport infantry while providing fire support against enemy troops, armoured vehicles, low-flying targets and other battlefield threats.

The package also includes four Regina artillery battalion modules, built around 96 Krab 155mm self-propelled howitzers, with the contract valued at around 7.9 billion PLN net. Each Regina module includes 24 Krab howitzers along with command, ammunition and maintenance vehicles. This gives Poland not only more artillery tubes, but also the support structure required to operate them as full combat-ready artillery units.

Poland is also expanding its mortar capability with eight Rak company fire modules, valued at around 3.8 billion PLN net. These modules include a total of 64 Rak 120mm self-propelled mortars mounted on Rosomak wheeled armoured vehicle chassis. Each module also includes command, reconnaissance, ammunition and repair vehicles. The newly ordered Rak systems are expected to receive a modernized automatic loading system, improving their rate of fire compared with earlier configurations.

The largest single contract in the HSW package is connected to the Homar-K rocket artillery system. Worth around 19 billion PLN, it covers approximately 1,000 support vehicles for Homar-K units. These include ammunition vehicles, command vehicles, mobile communications nodes, mobile command post modules, high-mobility trucks, heavy recovery vehicles and repair workshops. This is a critical part of the programme because rocket artillery requires a deep logistics and command network to sustain high-volume fires over time.

Another major contract, worth around 7.6 billion PLN net, covers support vehicles for six K9PL-equipped artillery battalion modules. Poland has acquired large numbers of South Korean K9-based howitzers, but these systems require command vehicles, ammunition carriers, repair workshops, technical recovery vehicles and other supporting platforms to operate effectively. This order helps turn K9PL acquisitions from individual platforms into fully supported artillery formations.

The package also includes dozens of Waran 4×4 armoured command vehicles, under a contract worth more than 2.6 billion PLN net. These vehicles will support command, communications and battlefield decision-making for armoured, mechanized, motorized and specialist units. In modern land warfare, command vehicles are essential for coordinating dispersed units under drone surveillance, electronic warfare and long-range artillery threats.

Poland also signed an amendment expanding the Baobab-K mine-laying vehicle order by 11 additional systems, increasing the total order to 35 vehicles. The Baobab-K provides Poland with a mobile scatterable mine-laying capability, allowing units to rapidly create minefields and shape the battlefield. This is especially relevant in the context of lessons from the war in Ukraine, where minefields, mobility denial and engineering systems have played a central role in land operations.

The package further includes refinanced contracts for Rosomak wheeled infantry fighting vehicles equipped with the ZSSW-30 turret. These include previously signed agreements for new-production Rosomak vehicles and Rosomak-L variants, now brought under the SAFE framework. This allows Poland to use European financing mechanisms to support existing modernization contracts while freeing national resources for other defence priorities.

Strategically, the package reflects Poland’s wider effort to build one of Europe’s most powerful land forces. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Warsaw has accelerated purchases of tanks, artillery, rocket systems, air defence equipment, aircraft and ammunition. The latest SAFE-funded contracts show that Poland is also focusing on the systems that make combat formations sustainable: logistics vehicles, ammunition carriers, command platforms, repair workshops and industrial support capacity.

The industrial dimension is just as important as the military one. Huta Stalowa Wola, PGZ, Rosomak, Jelcz, Teldat, PIT-Radwar and other Polish companies are expected to benefit from the contracts. Polish officials have framed the package as part of a broader effort to build a new defence-industrial base, support employment and strengthen national production capacity. In that sense, the programme is tied not only to military readiness, but also to industrial sovereignty.

If delivered on schedule, the package will significantly increase Poland’s mechanized mobility, artillery density, rocket artillery support structure and battlefield command capability before 2030. It will also give Polish industry years of production work at a scale rarely seen in Europe’s post-Cold War defence sector.

For Poland, these contracts are more than another procurement announcement. They are a signal that Warsaw intends to use EU-backed financing to expand firepower, reinforce logistics and build a domestic defence industry capable of supporting a large army in a prolonged crisis.