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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 Monday before heading to Washington for a slate of high-level meetings with U.S. officials at the Pentagon.
“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.”
Mr. Zalewski said Poland is also eager to continue investing in its own defense industry and is also working to deepen ties with U.S. defense manufacturing companies as Warsaw becomes the new European center of gravity for military power.
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.
Yet the American and Polish defense industries are showing major signs of growing collaboration. Most notably, 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 procuring and providing military goods are focal points 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 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, but 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 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 states for failing to invest sufficiently in their own defense. An era of Russian military aggression has threatened European Union security at a level not seen since the height of the Cold War.
A new leader in NATO
Poland has invested heavily in its military in the past 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, as a share of gross domestic product, 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. This trend is likely to accelerate over the coming years.
Mr. Zalewski said the Security Action for Europe 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 said investments are significantly affecting American defense firms operating in Poland. Increasingly integrated systems and joint ventures will effectively make U.S. manufacturers eligible for more EU defense contracts, he said.
He pointed to the increased licensing of military technologies and the need for greater capacity, especially in the current security environment, as key drivers of the decision to support the European Union’s SAFE instrument.
Yet the prospect of outsized future influence by European bureaucrats at EU headquarters in Brussels over SAFE instrument investments is a divisive issue in Poland.
Polish President Karol Nawrocki, a staunch conservative, is locked in a political standoff with 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 that 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, which have 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. He argues 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.”
Tightening U.S.-Poland ties
Military challenges facing nations on NATO’s eastern flank have begun to outpace EU and U.S. defense manufacturing capacities. The current conflict in the Middle East has further strained resources for alliance members in 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 was expected to meet this week with Elbridge Colby, undersecretary of defense for policy, to discuss how to further strengthen military ties between Warsaw and Washington.
The recent delay in troop deployments to Poland could overshadow the talks. Poland was notified of the delay only after news outlets broke the story, said one senior official.
Poland is trying to court a larger U.S. troop presence in the country, and the delay has triggered unease among Polish officials, who say it sends 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 statement 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 Wednesday. “Poland has shown both the ability and resolve to defend itself. Other NATO allies should follow suit.”
Poland continues to invest in its own military and in deepening ties with the U.S. administration. The announcement of “Fort Trump” and the opening of the Abrams tank engine service facility, one of only three in the world, have helped build connective tissue between the two militaries, but not without missteps.
Construction on Fort Trump has yet to begin, despite a 2018 proposal for a permanent U.S. military facility in Poland. It would require an amendment to Warsaw’s defense cooperation agreement to allow U.S. troops to be permanently stationed there.
Polish leadership considers the Abrams facility to be a major accomplishment. Poland operates 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.
While the U.S. is increasing production capacity away from its strained home industrial base, Mr. Zalewski said, Poland is developing technological 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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