British company BAE Systems will help Poland produce 155-millimetre ammunition rounds, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Friday, referring to heavy artillery shells that have been in short supply in Ukraine and among its NATO partners.
Poland is leading a European push to boost its defence readiness to deter any possible attack from Russia and is spending PLN2.4 billion ($660 million) for a project to build three ammunition factories.
"Thanks to this cooperation (with BAE Systems), we will have state-of-the-art technology, thanks to which we will be able to dramatically increase the production of 155 mm rounds," Tusk said in the Dezamet factory in Nowa Deba in southern Poland.
"This cooperation is only part of a larger project...we should achieve an annual production level of approximately 130,000 rounds in Poland within two years."
Western nations are trying to boost output of ammunition such as artillery shells because Ukraine has been using such supplies much faster than allies can produce them.
The 155-millimetre shell and its Russian equivalent combine the explosive power and extended range needed to destroy armour and inflict casualties.
Tusk also said he would talk to NATO's secretary general on Friday to discuss further steps by the alliance to protect its eastern flank after Russian drone incursions into Polish airspace this week.
BAE Systems said its technology would be licenced to Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa (PGZ) as part of a strategic partnership deal initially worth tens of millions of pounds, but involving further returns for BAE as it receives licence fees for the next 40 years.
Work on building the new munitions factory in Poland will start later this year and should be completed by the end of 2027 or early 2028, BAE said.
The factory will operate using BAE's automated technology, which is helping Britain lift its own production capacity.
BAE's Maritime Land Defence Solutions managing director, Scott Jamieson, said the tie-up had been in the works for some time and that this type of agreement was about establishing a "kind of new approach" as, "threats change by the week."
BAE is working to secure similar licencing deals in other European countries in what is a competitive area, he said.
(Reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk, Marek Strzelecki and Pawel Florkiewicz; additional reporting by Sarah Young in London, Editing by William Maclean and Timothy Heritage)
