Defense News:
WASHINGTON — Poland has planned to acquire Lockheed Martin-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems since roughly 2015, but — like its plans to buy the Patriot air-and-missile defense system — the deal was complex and hitting several walls.
The country wanted to share in production work for the HIMARS systems through PGZ, its state-run defense group. It recently signed a deal to buy Patriot missile defense systems after years of negotiating for work-sharing and offset agreements that nearly killed the program entirely several times. The ultimate cost of the Patriot system has turned out to be much greater than Poland initially anticipated.
So Poland has decided to go the direct Foreign Military Sales route and buy the HIMARS systems from the U.S. government, much like Romania did earlier this year to speed up the acquisition and also to lower the cost of the purchase.
