People visit the 32nd International Defense Industry Exhibition in Kielce, Poland, on Sept. 3, 2024. The 32nd International Defense Industry Exhibition opened on Tuesday in Kielce, a city in southern Poland. The exhibition brought together 711 companies, including 350 Polish companies. (Photo by Jaap Arriens/Xinhua via Getty Images)
MSPO 2024 — As defense firms from around the world meet in Poland for the 32nd International Defense Industry Exhibition (MSPO), the Polish president stressed that “security” was the byword of the week as Warsaw said it would announce approximately 2 billion zloty ($520 million USD) in new deals during the show.
“We need security, security, and once again security. And this is exactly what this exhibition is for. We need to develop NATO armies so that we can feel safer,” Andrzej Duda said during the expo’s opening day earlier this week. “To make this happen, we will build new arms factories, including ammunition factories.”
Duda, like other top Polish officials, was on hand for the show’s opening in Kielce, Poland, south of Warsaw and about 130 miles from the Ukrainian border. This year was the biggest MSPO yet, gathering more than 750 exhibitors from 34 countries. Excluding the scores of Polish firms hawking their wares, the largest number of exhibitors from a foreign country, 53, hailed from the United States, with another 34 from the United Kingdom.
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Poland has been on a defense buying spree in recent years, though the turnover in government in November prompted some concern that large deals inked by the previous administration may not be fully realized. At the show’s opening, Warsaw’s current government indicated they were well aware of the need to reinforce Polish security.
“This is a meeting of those who buy and sell. This is the largest defense industry exhibition in the history of Poland. I would like to thank all companies thanks to which we can build the economy. These expenditures on arms, which have been the largest in years, are the first place in NATO,” said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz.
As such, during the first day of MSPO, Poland’s MND Armament Agency signed a contract with the United States government for the delivery of 31 MIDS JTRS terminals, for medium-range Wisła and short-range Narew anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems. The value of the contract is approximately $16 million. The same day, another contract was signed by the Polish armament agency for the delivery 90 pieces of Hiab heavy-lift cranes on a Jelcz truck, to come in 2025-2028, worth $100 million, and for 348 contamination detection systems for Rosomak wheeled armored personnel carriers. Development work is to be carried out on that project from 2024 to 2026, with delivery from 2027 to 2030. The value of the contract is $82 million.
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On the next day the armament agency concluded the contract with the Spanish company Indra Sistemas for the delivery of up to 15 transportable systems for military and dual air traffic control at air bases throughout the country, with the delivery of the first eight systems expected 2028, with an optional extension of seven additional systems by 2031. The total value of the contract is approximately $290 million.
Beyond their own purchases at the show, the Polish government is working to put Polish defense products in front of more potential foreign buyers, by producing “The Polish Defence and Security Equipment Catalogue,” which shows of over 200 products from 61 Polish companies, including electronics, cyberspace, armored vehicles and artillery systems, weapon systems, as well as the aviation and space industry, air defense and anti-missile defense.
“We will send the catalogue to all our diplomatic missions, every military attaché and every embassy will be obliged to present this catalogue,” said Kosiniak-Kamysz. And Siewiera emphasized that “preparing such a catalogue is an example of thinking about the country’s security, which is understood as the ability to provide material needs of the Armed Forces and build the right economic position.”
