Poland has signed a $735 million contract with the U.S. for the supply of JASSM-ER missiles, Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said on Tuesday (May 28), as the country spends heavily to bolster its armed forces since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He added that the deliveries of this equipment will begin in 2026.
Warsaw is spending around 4% of its gross domestic product on defence this year and last week announced an agreement with the U.S. for the delivery of a $960 million airspace reconnaissance system to monitor the north-eastern borders.
"Today we have signed a contract worth $735 million, another multi-million dollar contract, for the purchase of air-to-surface missiles," Kosiniak-Kamysz told a news conference on Tuesday.
Kosiniak-Kamysz also thanked the U.S. Ambassador to Poland Mark Brzezinski who was present at the conference, for what he called "unwavering support for the Republic of Poland, for always being with us, overseeing and promoting purchasing opportunities for the Polish military".
In March this year, the U.S. State Department agreed to sell the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles Extended Range (JASSM-ER) to Poland together with the AIM-120C-8 AMRAAM and AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missiles.
According to the ministry, the missiles have a range of around 1,000 kilometres, which is nearly three times the range of the JASSM missiles that Polish F-16s are currently armed with.
The Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), developed by Lockheed Martin, is a maneuvering missile designed to carry out long-distance strikes on critical infrastructure, command centers, air defense systems, and enemy air bases, making detection and countermeasures difficult.
The extended-range version (JASSM-ER) was introduced in 2014.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters, PAP