US gives $2B loan to Poland to help buy US-made weapons

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has issued a $2 billion loan to Poland to help cover costs from Warsaw’s spending spree on new weapons, the State Department announced Monday. The money is allocated through the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program, which stipulates the money has to be spent on US-made weapons. But unlike traditional FMF dollars that work as grants handed to nations to fund the purchases, this loan does come with interest that will have to be paid back to the US government. The US put $60 million as an additional subsidy towards setting up the loan, essentially guaranteeing good terms for Poland. The exact details of the loan, including the interest rate and the time over which Poland has to pay it back, were not made public by State. “Poland is a stalwart U.S. Ally, and Poland’s security is vital to the collective defense of NATO’s Eastern Flank,” the department said in a news release. “In addition to its central support role in facilitating international assistance to neighboring Ukraine, Poland has demonstrated its ironclad commitment to strengthening regional security through its robust investments in defense spending.” Warsaw certainly has not been shy about spending money on military modernization since Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. In terms of what the FMF loan may go towards, Poland has announced plans to buy Abrams tanks, Apache and Black Hawk helicopters and HIMARS rocket launchers. Earlier this month, the Eastern European nation announced it would become the first international customer of Lower-Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensors (LTAMDS) along with another procurement of Patriot batteries. And even before the Ukraine war began, Poland was planning to drop significant money on F-35 joint strike fighters. Outside of the US, Poland has invested heavily in South Korean-made K2 tanks, Chunmoo rocket launchers, K9 self-propelled howitzers and FA-50 combat aircraft, and at least two Swedish early warning aircraft to complement additional tethered warning systems. In addition to US funds, Poland also appears to have taken a series of loans from South Korea in order to help finance those procurements.