Poland signed an agreement with the US for the delivery of a $960-million aerial reconnaissance system to monitor Poland’s northeastern borders, Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said on May 22, reported Reuters.
“Poland will be the second country in the world to use this system,” he said. “This agreement defines our security, it is another act of cooperation between Poland and the US.”
Poland has increased defence spending to around 4% of GDP this year in an effort to strengthen its armed forces after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It plans to invest a total of 10 billion zlotys in defending its eastern border.
Under the agreement, Poland will receive four aerostats, or anchored air balloons, which will be placed at posts along Poland’s eastern and northeastern borders, assisting Poland’s air defence system and coastal surveillance system.
The contract also provides for related logistical and programme support. The system will be delivered and fully operational by 2027, Kosiniak-Kamysz says.
The head of the Polish Armaments Agency, General Artur Kuptel, described the system in Polish media earlier this month as radars hanging from anchored air balloons that would monitor the skies from Polish airspace as far as Ukraine, Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
They are capable of detecting a variety of objects such as missiles, aircraft, drones and ships over a radius of more than 300 km. (BNN)