The Trump-Nawrocki Deterrence Partnership (From RealClearDefense)

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Poland’s new President, Karol Nawrocki, is meeting at the White House with President Donald Trump next week. Poland has extremely tense borders with Russia and Ukraine. The NATO ally gave Ukraine 40% of its military equipment at the beginning of the 2022 Russian invasion. It is now backfilling and modernizing its military at a rapid rate. Poland is already spending 4.7% of its GDP on its defense build-up and will likely be the first NATO member to reach the new alliance goal of 5% of GDP for defense. Poland has purchased a huge amount of modern American military equipment to deter further Russian aggression into Eastern Europe. That includes high-end Apache helicopters, F-35 jet fighters, and Patriot anti-air and anti-missile defenses. The Russians would have a hard time tangling with Poland even if she was not a NATO ally. 

The broad northern European plain across Poland and Russia has seen the largest land wars in history.  To occupy land or to stop an invasion, an Army needs heavy armor. The Poles have already purchased nearly 400 U.S. Abrams tanks. The Polish Army has a stated requirement for 800 more tanks. Filling this requirement quickly is critical. President Trump should ask President Nawrocki to advocate for Poland to purchase 250-500 additional Abrams tanks this year. Russia is already building and modernizing about 1,100 tanks per year and expanding its defense industrial base. There is a massive hub for tanks behind the Ural Mountains, and rail is used for moving Russian armor to the front in Ukraine. A U.S armored brigade is serving side-by-side now in Poland as the linchpin of deterrence, not only for Poland, but for all of NATO. 

President Trump’s dramatic effort to jump-start America’s industrial sector figures prominently in his meeting on September 3^rd with President Nawrocki. American tanks are built in the heart of Trump country in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. President Trump should urge the Polish leader to purchase more Abrams tanks. The Polish Army should be eager to be interoperable (side-by-side) with the American Army on the battlefield. Poland has already opened an Abrams tank repair facility in Poland. If Poland purchases additional Abrams tanks this year, it will get the fastest delivery possible and at the same price as previous purchases. Delay will result in longer delivery schedules and a significant increase in cost.  

President Trump should also offer the Poles what they desperately need: Relief from the regulatory burdens of “ITAR”, the regulations that drag out foreign military sales (FMS) over security concerns that are often too strict when a friend like Poland is nose-to-nose with the Russians. President Trump has an executive order that proposes such regulatory relief for strong allies.

This Trump-Nawrocki meeting promises to be a fascinating and potentially historic event in the Oval Office, 86 years after Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany divided up Poland at the beginning of World War II and 36 years after Poland liberated itself from the Soviet Empire. The U.S./Poland military partnership will be the key to credible NATO deterrence going forward.