Poland plans to increase the production of artillery shells for howitzers five times by 2026 in order to reduce dependence on foreign ammunition suppliers, reports the British newspaper Financial Times, citing the country's Minister of State Assets Jakub Jaworowski.
„Our goal in the short term is to significantly increase domestic production of this type of weapon, to become independent of foreign supplies and to create a sustainable basis for the national economy.“ „This is one of our priorities“, he said in an interview with the publication.
Jaworowski said that for this purpose the Polish authorities will allocate 663 million USD to the state defense company PGZ. The funds will be used to eliminate the shortage of large-caliber artillery ammunition, including 155-mm shells. Shells of this caliber, Jaworowski noted, “play a key role“ in modern combat operations and are therefore “needed in huge quantities“.
PGZ annually produces nearly 30,000 large-caliber shells. According to the publication, in the next 3 years it is planned to increase this figure to 150-180 thousand by attracting new funding.
Poland is a leader in NATO in terms of defense spending as a share of GDP - in 2025 they will amount to 47.7 billion. USD, or 4.7% of the republic's GDP. However, most of this spending has so far been directed towards purchases abroad, primarily in the United States and South Korea.