TIRANA, August 16 – More than 2,000 troops from Poland and other NATO members showed off more than 200 pieces of military hardware and 92 aircraft during the parade in the capital Warsaw, held to commemorate the anniversary of the 1920 victory over Soviet Russia at the Battle of Warsaw during the Polish-Soviet War, according to the Polish Defence Ministry quoted by news agencies on Wednesday.
The parade – the first without post-Soviet equipment – was organized under the slogan “Strong White and Red” and is the culminating event of the celebrations.
The show of strength comes against a backdrop of recent provocations by Belarus and Russia, which included Wagner mercenaries conducting military exercises close to the border with Poland and Lithuania, as well as flying two Belarusian military helicopters into Polish airspace.
Poland said in January that it plans to increase defense spending to 4% of its gross domestic product this year, the highest level in NATO.
The 2023 state budget provides for defense spending of 97.4 billion zlotys (about €22 billion), or nearly 4% of GDP. The target includes doubling the size of the armed forces from 150,000 to 300,000 personnel.
Poland is buying hundreds of tanks and howitzers from the US and South Korea, and Patriot air defense systems, HIMARS rocket launchers and F-35 combat aircraft from the US.
“In a moment we will see how much has changed in the armed forces in recent years,” Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said in Warsaw on Tuesday. “We are showing our strength and modernity,” he added.
Blaszczak told the crowd “we have built powerful armed forces that will effectively defend our borders without hesitation”.
A march of troops included Polish, American, British, Romanian, and Croatian soldiers.
According to the Global Firepower ranking, the Polish army is ranked 20th among 145 classified armies from around the world. In terms of military power, Poland is ahead of Germany, Spain and Canada. Just above Poland in the ranking are Vietnam, Israel and Iran. The ranking is led by the US, followed by Russia and China.
In the ranking, Poland received high marks for the level of air force, transport and artillery. /argumentum.al
