Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk is asking Ukraine to help develop a “drone armada,” as Warsaw builds one of Europe’s largest and most modern military forces since Russia invaded Ukraine more than four years ago.
From what began as a desperate necessity in 2022, Kyiv today is widely regarded as a global leader in drone technology and production.
“I am proud to be able to open this new chapter in building Polish security with you today, and I am proud that our partner in this endeavor is the country most experienced in what determines control in the skies today,” Mr. Tusk said Monday at the Road to Ukraine Recovery conference in the Polish city of Rzeszow.
Poland is undergoing one of the most significant and rapid military expansions in modern European history.
Warsaw has bought “hundreds” of tanks, howitzers and rockets since 2022, when the government passed the Homeland Defense Act in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Poland devotes 4.8% of its gross domestic product to the military, the highest share among NATO members.
“No one but Europe will solve its defense problems,” Mr. Tusk said during a joint press conference last year in Warsaw with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Poland is deeply suspicious of Russia after centuries of conflict and historical repression, as well as ongoing Russian sabotage attempts.
Polish officials view Moscow’s “neo-imperial” policy as a direct threat. According to a 2022 Pew Research Center survey, 97% of Poles said they had no confidence in Russian President Vladimir Putin after the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and more recent sabotage attacks on Polish soil.
Poland has about 216,000 active military personnel. It is already one of NATO’s largest and most heavily armed land forces, but it plans to expand to 300,000 active troops and 200,000 reservists by 2039, analysts say.
Poland’s approach to military dominance combines three elements rarely pursued together in contemporary Europe: numerical expansion, near-universal military training and the rapid integration of advanced strike, drone and artificial-intelligence-enabled systems.
“At the center of this transformation is a rejection of the minimalist force structures that dominated European defense planning after 1990,” according to a recent report by historian Darius von Guttner for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
“For decades, most European states prioritized ’professionalization,’ expeditionary capability and small but technologically advanced forces designed for crisis management rather than territorial defense,” Mr. von Guttner wrote.
Although Poland doesn’t share a border with mainland Russia, the heavily armed enclave of Kaliningrad is sandwiched between NATO members Poland and Lithuania. Formerly the German city of Konigsberg, it was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1945 and today remains an isolated yet vital outpost of the Russian Federation.
Warsaw’s concerns about geography and its proximity to the Russian Federation prompted Mr. Tusk’s government to withdraw from the December 1997 Ottawa Convention, which bans anti-personnel land mines.
The government plans to deploy land mines as part of its Eastern Shield mission to secure its borders with Kaliningrad and Belarus.
In February, Mr. Tusk unveiled the Bluszcz weapon system, which Mr. Tusk says can lay down an extensive minefield within 48 hours if threatened.
“We are in the process of finalizing this mine project, which is crucial for our security [and] for the security of our territory and border,” he said at a press conference.
Polish officials said the Eastern Shield project has three main objectives: to impede enemy troop mobility, facilitate friendly force mobility and protect Polish soldiers and civilians.
“Homeland security, defense, community-building, strong alliances, and modernizing the army are our key objectives,” said a statement by Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, Polish deputy prime minister and defense minister. “Eastern Shield is there to deter the enemy, so that no one would ever think of attacking Poland and NATO’s eastern flank. This is why we’re building it in the first place.”
Poland is set to become the tank capital of Europe by the end of the year, with nearly 800 modern tanks, including U.S. M1A2 Abrams and South Korean K2 Black Panthers. The government also has ordered hundreds of HIMARS rocket launchers for their ability to strike deep within enemy lines, analysts said.
Although Poland does not have a draft, Mr. Tusk has proposed large-scale military training for all adult males, loosely modeled on Switzerland’s mandatory militia program.
“The direction is clear. Military preparedness [in Poland] is being reframed as a shared civic responsibility, rather than the preserve of a professional minority,” Mr. von Guttner said. “After decades in which war was treated as something managed at arm’s length by specialists, this represents a profound cultural shift.”
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