[Wrocław, 30 April 2022]

Recent discussions between Poland’s President Andrzej Duda and UK's Prime Minister Boris Johnson over defensive support to Ukraine, and agreements made last November between their respective Defence Ministers, had laid the ground for a significant UK-Poland collaboration on the early introduction of cutting-edge short-range air defence missile systems, NAREW, in Poland. The contract was signed this week. This collaboration will enhance defence innovation in both NATO countries and bolster European security.

NAREW GBAD (ground-based air defence) is based on the Common Anti-Air Modular Missile (CAMM) architecture, shared with UK's Sky Sabre. Supersonic CAMMs are excellent against stealth aircraft and high-speed missiles, even under extreme weather and intense electronic jamming conditions. They can intercept a tennis ball-sized object travelling at several times the speed of sound (look out Djokovic!).

Both countries also plan to share pioneering technologies to develop further GBAD systems, boosting innovation, technology transfer and critical armaments production in Poland.

Defence Under-Secretary James Heappey is also visiting Warsaw to discuss NATO's enhanced Forward Presence (eFP), which deploys four multinational battlegroups in Estonia, Poland, Latvia and Lithuania to guard NATO security.

While British-Polish co-operation, friendship and mutual respect have never been stronger since Polish pilots excelled in the Battle of Britain, an unkind person (i.e. me!) will now spoil this love-fest by reminding Britain that while Poland has committed to increase its armed forces to 250,000 full-time and 50,000 highly trained reservist troops, and increase its defence budget to 3% of GDP, Britain is slashing its forces by 2025 to 73,000, with the Army Reserve at 30,000 troops. Combined, that’s 103,000 very thinly-stretched troops.

While Heappey was quoted in last month's UK Defence Journal that under the Future Soldier programme the Army will modernise to become "fit for purpose to counter the threats of today and the future", this is a deranged and dangerous state of affairs. In war, quantity AND quality both matter!

Come on UK, follow Poland's lead! We are wealthy. At 3.3% share of the global economy, UK has the 5th largest GDP in the world and 28th highest GDP per capita. It is 8th in the world in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP). We CAN afford 3% of our GDP to help protect our people and our NATO allies.

We should at least DOUBLE the current size of our armed forces - as well as invest in its quality - and develop a much larger pool of committed, well-trained reservists. Poland’s commitment to defence shames UK’s shrinking army.

Technology will never by itself win future wars, quantity still counts!