Poland has signed a contract for the purchase of 116 M1A1 ABRAMS tanks for the Polish Army from General Dynamics Land Systems.
The contract from January 4 is in addition to the 250 M1A2 SEP v.3 Abrams tank deal from last year. The M1A2 tanks are scheduled to be delivered to Poland between 2025 and 2026, while the M1A1s ordered on Wednesday are to be delivered by 2024.
“We are conducting negotiations on this matter, but the tanks for which I approved the contracts today (Jan. 4) will already be in the equipment of the Polish Army this year,” deputy prime minister Mariusz Błaszczak said.
In addition to the 116 M1A1 ABRAMS tanks, the January 4 agreement will include 12 M88A2 Hercules recovery vehicles, 8 M1074 bridges, 6 M577 command vehicles and 26 Humvee-based Shop Equipment Contact Maintenance (SECM) vehicles.
The USD 1.4 billion contract is the first stage of the project, which also includes a significant number of modern types of live ammunition, as well as training ammunition, in accordance with the maximum scope of the contract approved by the US Congress. The above orders, including sub-caliber armor-piercing ammunition or multi-purpose programmable ammunition, will be implemented successively, the defense ministry explained.
USD200 million of the 1.4 billion investment is financed by the American side under the aid funds granted to Poland.
“We are negotiating a second agreement accompanying this agreement, which concerns the acquisition of ammunition by the Polish Army in large quantities. This is a task that still lies ahead of us, but due to the fact that I really wanted Abrams tanks to be delivered to the Polish Army as soon as possible, we decided to divide this process into two parts. Now we are still negotiating the issue of ammunition, but I can assure you that we are on the right track to quickly finalize this second agreement as well,” Błaszczak added.
