Mariusz Błaszczak made the declaration at a media briefing in Washington on Thursday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
The Polish defence minister, who is making a three-day visit to America, told reporters he had held talks with arms contractors General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Boeing.
Błaszczak said that Poland’s plan to buy more US military hardware had the support of Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin, whom he met a day earlier.
“We talked about the equipment being supplied within the shortest possible time frame,” the Polish defence minister stated after his talks with General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Boeing.
He added that the US armament makers were “open to accelerating their deliveries.”
Interoperability with US Army
Błaszczak said the new purchases would make the Polish army more interoperable with its US counterpart. He added that the deals were possible thanks to Poland’s new homeland defence law that raises military spending to 3 percent of GDP.
“Poland needs additional batteries of the Patriot missile defence system, as well as more HIMARS rocket launchers, attack helicopters and aircraft,” Błaszczak told reporters.
He said Poland would choose between Boeing’s AH-64 Apache attack helicopters and Bell’s AH-1Z Viper assault choppers.
He revealed he had also discussed additional purchases of the JASSM air-launched cruise missiles and the Javelin anti-tank missiles, the PAP news agency reported.
Friday is day 58 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP