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The Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces, General Wiesław Kukuła, believes that Poland will need a much larger army, which may be difficult to achieve due to an aging population, if the country wants to protect itself from a potential war.
He made this statement during a speech at the Land Forces University in Wrocław, as quoted by Reuters.
According to Kukuła, everything indicates that the current generation “will take up arms to defend our country.”
“Neither I nor any of you intend to lose this war,” he emphasized.
He noted that Poland must build armed forces that are prepared for such circumstances.
In his view, the demographic crisis will slow down the recruitment for military service.
“The enemy’s potential is so great that we must build a much larger army, which means we also need to implement a model of universal service,” Kukuła said.
According to the Polish Ministry of Defense, by the end of the year, the Polish army will have over 207,500 soldiers, making it the third largest army in NATO after the U.S. and Turkey.
Recently, it was revealed that Poland’s defense spending planned for 2025 will be a record high, reaching 4.7% of GDP.
A few days earlier, Poland received a $3 billion loan from the U.S. to purchase military equipment.
In early September, at the International Defense Industry Exhibition in Kielce, Poland signed contracts for the purchase of radar systems and drones worth over one billion zlotys.
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