2023-08-21 22:31:09
The United States approved on Monday a giant arms contract including the sale of 96 Apache attack helicopters to Poland, Washington’s ally and major support for Ukraine in its war once morest Russia.
Warsaw had asked Washington last year for Apache helicopters, a model built by Boeing, to replace its aging Soviet aircraft.
The sale, which totals US$12 billion, will improve Poland’s ability to deal with current and future threats by providing a credible force capable of deterring adversaries and participating in NATO operations, wrote the US State Department announcing that it had approved the sale and notified Congress.
Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Poland has served as a logistics platform for the US military, which has delivered huge quantities of armament to the Ukrainian army via the Polish border.
This sale of 96 Apache helicopters, model AH-64E, brings the United States and Poland closer, while relations had deteriorated, the Biden administration opposing the conservative positions of the Warsaw government on LGBT + rights and freedom of the press, in particular.
Poland spends 4% of its GDP on defense
Poland is a force for political stability and economic progress in Europe, the State Department said Monday.
The American Boeing, which builds the Apache, ensures that more than 2700 of these devices have been delivered since 1984. This combat helicopter equips the American army, but also, among others, the Australian, British, Indian, Saudi forces. Or even Israeli.
Poland announced in January that it planned to spend 4% of its GDP on defence, a target well above the 2% demanded by NATO.
In June, Warsaw received its first US Abrams tanks, previously used by the Marines, under another arms deal worth US$1.4 billion.
The Polish army, the first foreign army to benefit from this heavy tank, expects, by the end of 2024, 250 other new Abrams.
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