The US State Department has agreed to sell Poland 800 AGM-114 Hellfire anti-tank guided missiles and additional equipment at a price that will not exceed $150 million. The agreement was announced by the government’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which handles US arms sales under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) programme.

FMS procedures stipulate that the US Congress will now have time to express any objections. This is a formality, as it is extremely rare for congressmen to exercise this right.

Deputy Prime Minister, head of the Ministry of National Defence (MON) Mariusz Błaszczak tweeted that the missiles will be integrated with AW149 multi-role helicopters, a product of the Italian company Leonardo, owner of the PZL-Świdnik plant near Lublin. In July 2022, the Ministry of Defence signed a contract for 32 such machines. Minister Błaszczak announced that the integration of the missiles with the helicopters will be carried out by PZL-Świdnik.

After final approval of the contract, the parties will proceed to price negotiations. The price $150 million, quoted in the communiqué, is the maximum value. The same is true about the number of missiles that can be purchased by the Polish Defence Ministry under a single or multiple contracts. This was the case with Poland’s purchase of used M1A1 Abrams tanks. When the Ministry of Defence approved the contract for the tanks and some of the ammunition in early 2023, it announced further purchases of missiles under subsequent contracts.

The published Defense Security Cooperation Agency release covers the sale to Poland of 800 AGM-114 Hellfire missiles in the R2 version, as well as four missiles in the training version. It also includes technical support, spare parts, and other logistical elements.

The laser-guided Hellfire missiles can arm AH-64 Apache attack helicopters and MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles. The Polish Ministry of Defence is planning to acquire them from the US.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński