WARSAW, Poland — A top Polish defense official said in an exclusive interview that his country unequivocally possesses the most powerful land army in Europe and is gearing up for a drastic increase in defense manufacturing capacity, only a generation after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Pawel Zalewski, Poland’s deputy minister of national defense, made the assertions in a wide-ranging discussion with The Washington Times’ Threat Status platform on May 18, before heading to Washington for a slate of high-level meetings with U.S. officials at the Pentagon later this week.
“We have the biggest land NATO army in Europe with the biggest capabilities,” Mr. Zalewski said. “We are taking lessons learned from Ukraine. It shows that a country at war must have very short supply chains, so we’re investing in this capability also.”
Poland is not only eager to continue its investment in its own defense industry, the deputy defense minister said, it is now actively working to deepen ties with U.S. defense manufacturing companies as Warsaw becomes the new European center of gravity for military power.
His comments came even as concerns over the strength of U.S.-Poland military ties have risen in the wake of Washington’s abrupt decision last week to delay and potentially cancel the deployment of some 4,000 U.S. Army soldiers to Poland. The Pentagon has provided few details on the reasoning behind the decision.
But there are major signs of growing collaboration between the American and Polish defense industries. Most notably, the U.S. industry giant Honeywell signed an agreement this week to create a major center for servicing U.S.-made Abrams tank engines — the first facility of its kind in Europe.
Mr. Zalewski told The Times that expansion, investment and increased spending on both procuring and providing military goods are a focal point of the government of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, even as divided political factions in Warsaw see different paths toward accomplishing those goals.
Poland’s robust investment in its own military equipment in the wake of Russia’s 2022 invasion of neighboring Ukraine has pushed the Polish military to the top of the European heap, even as Mr. Zalewski acknowledged that Turkey may still have more troops than any other NATO member nation on the continent.
Ukraine is sandwiched between Russia and Poland, and the Russian assault there has accelerated Warsaw’s defense buildup, while also opening the door to partnerships that the Trump administration sees as key to success in the region.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has called Poland a “model ally,” even as the administration admonishes NATO member nations for failing to invest aggressively enough in their own defense. It comes in an era of Russian military aggression that has threatened European Union security at a level not seen since the height of the U.S.-Soviet Cold War.
A new leader in NATO
Poland has invested heavily in its military in the last four years — going from $15.3 billion in 2022 to nearly $50 billion in 2025, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Warsaw is now the top military spender by share of GDP among all NATO member nations, including the United States.
The growing U.S.-Polish alliance is undergirded by the reality that a majority of the increased Polish spending is going to U.S. manufacturers, a trend likely only to accelerate over the coming years.
At the same time, Mr. Zalewski said, the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) instrument, a new EU-driven plan that calls on the European bloc to collectively and dramatically increase investments in key regional defense industry priorities, will soon add an additional $51.6 billion to Poland’s overall spending picture.
The funding “will end up in the Polish military industry,” the deputy defense minister said.
Mr. Zalewski emphasized that current investments are already significantly impacting American defense firms operating in Poland, saying increasingly integrated systems and joint ventures going forward will effectively make U.S. manufacturers eligible for more EU defense contracts.
He pointed specifically to the increased licensing of military technologies and a need for increased capacity, especially in the current security environment, as key drivers of the decision to support the European Union’s SAFE instrument.
But the prospect of outsized future influence over the SAFE instrument investments by European bureaucrats at EU headquarters in Brussels is a divisive issue in Poland.
Polish President Karol Nawrocki, a staunch conservative, is locked in an ongoing and political standoff with Prime Minister Mr. Tusk’s ruling liberal coalition over what Warsaw’s posture toward the EU should entail.
Mr. Nawrocki recently vetoed the SAFE instrument plan after it was passed by the Polish Parliament. He and other Polish conservatives argued the plan would give the European Commission broad discretion to withhold funding. He also objected to what he saw as built-in preferences for European suppliers that could jeopardize Polish defense industry cohesion with the United States.
At issue, specifically, is the prospect that the bulk of the SAFE instrument investments could be channeled to the defense economies of Germany and France, two countries that have recently been more publicly at odds with Mr. Trump over defense issues.
Mr. Zalewski, an unaffiliated member of the ruling liberal coalition in Warsaw, sees the SAFE instrument issue differently, arguing that the EU initiative will benefit both the U.S. and Polish militaries.
“It will also be the American military industry which will gain from the SAFE instrument,” Mr. Zalewski told The Times. “We are economically successful because we are a member of the EU, and we started this modernization of our army.”
The defense investment developments in Europe come as the military challenges facing nations on NATO’s eastern flank have begun outpacing both EU and U.S. defense manufacturing capacities. The recent conflict in Iran has only further tightened the belt for alliance members in close geographic proximity to Russia.
“It’s very important to say that European defense industry capabilities are very, very limited — too limited — in comparison to the requests,” said Mr. Zalewski. “Naturally, because of the scale of the needs of Polish Armed Forces, the scale of the needs of Ukrainian armed forces, the scale of the needs of eastern flank state armed forces, deepening cooperation between Poland and America is a very important project.”
Mr. Zalewski is expected to meet with the Trump administration’s Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby this week as the two discuss how to further strengthen the military bonds between Warsaw and Washington.
The recent delay of troop deployments to Poland could overshadow the talks, as Poland was notified of the cancellation only after news outlets had broken the news on the development, according to one senior Polish official.
Poland is trying to court a larger presence of U.S. troops in the country, and the delay has triggered unease among Polish officials who say it sent a message of weakness to Russia.
Despite the delayed deployments, U.S. officials consistently describe Poland as a close ally and partner.
The Pentagon’s own statement this week on the delay reflected that understanding.
“The department will remain in close contact with our Polish counterparts as this analysis proceeds, including to ensure that the United States retains a strong military presence in Poland,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in the statement on Wednesday. “Poland has shown both the ability and resolve to defend itself. Other NATO allies should follow suit.”
Poland continues to invest in not only its own military, but in deepening ties with the current administration as well. The announcement of “Fort Trump” and the opening of the Abrams tank engine service facility, one of only three in the world, has resulted in building connective tissue between the two militaries but not without missteps.
Construction on “Fort Trump” has yet to begin after an announcement in 2018 offered a permanent facility for the U.S. military in Poland, something that would require an amendment to Warsaw’s existing defense cooperation agreement with the U.S. to allow American troops to be permanently stationed there.
Polish leadership saw the opening of the Abrams facility this week as a major accomplishment. Poland already uses the tank in its own military and sees the facility as a step toward producing parts and becoming a logical hub and manufacturing center for NATO allies.
Mr. Zalewski argued that while the U.S. is gaining an increased production capacity away from its own strained home industrial base, Poland is gaining technology capabilities and strengthening partnerships across the Atlantic.
“The Polish production base could be cooperating with American technology and could be very important to fuel American stockpiles,” Mr. Zalewski said. “Because the capacity of the American defense industry is limited. So this is the best way to develop and have some guarantees in case of serious conflict somewhere else.”
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