July 12, 2024: Poland is the largest and most militarily powerful NATO country in Eastern Europe. It achieved this status by spending many billions of dollars on new weapons for its ground, naval and air forces. Poland’s efforts have encouraged neighbors like Finland to do the same. For Poland the buildup has been going for five years. In 2019 Poland began negotiating with the United States to obtain 32 F-35 fighters and in 2020 the deal was made. This cost Poland $4.6 billion and the first aircraft are arriving by the end of 2024. Finland ordered 64 F-35s and expects the first of them to arrive by 2026.

Missiles and bombs that the F-35 is equipped to carry include air-to-air missiles like the AIM-9X Sidewinder, AIM-120 AMRAAM, AIM-132 ASRAAM, AIM-260 JATM, and MBDA Meteor. Air-to-surface missiles include AGM-88G AARGM-ER, AGM-158 JASSM, AGM-179 JAGM, SPEAR 3, and the hypervelocity Stand-In Attack Weapon. Anti-ship missiles include the AGM-158C LRASM and Joint Strike Missile. Bombs include the Joint Direct Attack Munition, Paveway precision-guided glide bomb, AGM-154 JSOW, GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb, GBU-53/B Stormbreaker and the B61 mod 12 nuclear bomb.

Pilots benefit from several features that make their job easier and much more effective. The cockpit where the pilot sits features a bubble canopy providing excellent views of what is outside the aircraft. Cockpit controls have been reduced and made easier to see and use. This is done by using a 50 by 20 cm (20 by 8 inch) touch display that shows flight instruments, stores management, CNI information, and integrated caution and warnings. Pilots can customize the arrangement of the information. Below the main display is a smaller stand-by display. Pilots also have a helmet-mounted visor, a display that enables the pilot to look at an enemy aircraft and fire a missile at it. This point and shoot capability is an enormous advantage in air-to-air combat. The F-35 electronics also provide a better view of ground targets and the ability to quickly select the most suitable ground attack weapon carried and use it.

Poland has been worried about Russian aggression since 2014 and sped up its long-range 2013-2022 military modernization plan. This cost $43 billion so accelerating some of the purchases required borrowing money or making cuts in the non-defense parts of the budget. Given the popular fear of Russian aggression, the money was found and a decade later the Russian threat had gotten worse.

In 2014 the military wanted to get some weapons quickly. These included several versions of the JASSM smart bombs with ranges varying from 400 kilometers to 1,900 kilometers. Poland already has the locally developed WR300 rocket system, which is similar to the U.S. MLRS, but includes a 300 kilometer long range version. Poland is purchasing large Predator class type UAVs and a second coast defense battalion armed with Norwegian NSM anti-ship missiles as well as new attack helicopters. Poland found the Americans eager to cooperate on upgrading Poland’s arsenal of advanced weapons. The most recent order for JASSM missiles included over 800 missiles of various JASSM models.

Given Poland’s long history of oppression by Russia, including invasions, occupations and double-dealing of all sorts, the U.S. found Poland eager to confront any Russian moves to the west. Poland has often been left high and dry by the West in the past when it came to Russian aggression. In 1939 there were only promises of aid from a few West European nations. Poland remembered 1939 and, by 2014, when the Russian threat returned, Poland was more closely connected to the rest of Europe and North America because Poland was now a member of NATO. This was not the case in 1939 and a decade later, after World War II, NATO was founded. In 1939 Poland was conquered by Germany and Russia and was not completely free of Russian interference until the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

Poland joined NATO in 1999, having shed nearly all its Soviet era weapons and replaced the old weapons with new western models. The buildup of military weapons continues. Once free of Russian control, Poland established a free market economy and prospered. Poland can now afford the most modern weapons. They built and purchased lots of them to demonstrate their ability to successfully resist future Russian threats. The Russians have noticed and their only response is complaints in the Russian mass media that Poland is now a threat to Russia. That’s the kind of reaction Poland likes to hear. Constantly purchasing more new weapons, Poland seeks to keep the Russians on the defensive for a change. Poland is supported by other East European nations that used to be threatened by Russia before NATO membership became an option. The collapse of the Soviet Union was prompted by growing unrest over Russian domination by East European countries during the 1980s and then their de facto rebellions against it. This triggered the collapse of the Soviet Union, which was under great strain because of ongoing economic collapse due to the wonders of communism and a brilliant economic warfare campaign by the Reagan administration. The Soviet Union then unraveled into fourteen new countries, including the Russian Federation and Ukraine.

Russia’s 2014 and 2o22 invasions Ukraine in 2014 reminded all other former Soviet subjects that Russia’s centuries-old attitudes about neighbors are still at work. Poland, the United States and about half of all the NATO countries have become major supporters of Ukraine in its fight to oust the Russian invaders. The Americans do it because they have the largest economy in the world and have long been the largest member of NATO. Poland has bitter memories of past Russian aggression and learned from bitter 20th century experience that the best place to fight a war is someplace else. Ukraine is a great place for Poland to fight the Russians.

A Russian attack on Poland would trigger the mutual defense clause of the NATO agreement. Russia would then be at war with 32 other nations, including the United States and most of Europe. One reason Russia gave for invading Ukraine was the Ukrainian efforts to join NATO. That was interrupted by the Russian invasion and Ukraine and NATO agree that once the Russian invasion is defeated, Ukraine will become the 33rd member of NATO. Russia insists that will never happen, but its enormous losses in Ukraine say otherwise. Russia cannot keep this up and is trying to negotiate a peace deal that will leave them in possession of Crimea and two nearby provinces they conquered in 2014. Ukrainian forces are on the offensive, have retaken some Russian-occupied territory and insist their offensive will not end until all of 1991 Ukraine is free of any Russian occupation.