National Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak has announced that the US Congress approved the sale of nearly 500 Himars launchers to Poland. “The tacit approval procedure for the US Congress’ notification of a contract for almost 500 Himars launchers for Poland has ended”, the minister wrote on Twitter.

At the beginning of February, approval for the sale of HIMARS systems to Poland was given by the US State Department. At that time, a note was submitted to Congress, which started the procedure. Now the US Congress – through ‘tacit approval’ – has notified the State Department’s decision.

In the first package, 20 HIMARS (18 combat and two training) launchers are to be delivered to Poland. Only in subsequent years Poland will receive more launchers but gradually. Ultimately, the first 36 sets are to be mounted on original American Oshkosh M1140 trucks, while a further 450 HIMARS are to be adapted to Polish Jelcz vehicles.

Poland is planning to buy nearly 500 HIMARS long-range multi-barrel rocket launchers from the US, along with ammunition, support equipment, spare parts and an exercise package. In response to an initial enquiry from the Polish Ministry of Defence regarding the purchase of such a large number of launchers, the manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, indicated that it could initially offer around 200 launchers. So far, there have not been produced for the US and all buyers of in total HIMARS as many as Poland wants to order.

As the manufacturer of HIMARS is not able to provide such a large number of launchers for Poland alone in a short period of time, the Ministry of Defence has therefore decided on an additional purchase of 218 Korean K239 Chunmoo launchers.

HIMARS – M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System – is, a lightweight multi-track rocket launcher mounted on the chassis of an armoured Oshkosh M1140 truck. It was developed in the late 1990s for the US Army.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński