Poland accelerates its plans for missile defense

VOA:

Poland has decided to speed up its tender for a missile defense system, the Defense Ministry said, in a sign of Warsaw's disquiet over the tension between neighboring Ukraine and Russia.
 
“By the end of this year we want to already have chosen an offer. That is the acceleration by several months, compared to our original plans, that we are talking about,” Czeslaw Mroczek, Deputy Defense Minister, told Reuters.

The NATO member had planned to determine the supplier of its missile defense system in 2015, but the crisis in Ukraine and concerns about Russia's annexation of Crimea have prompted officials to speed up the timetable.

There are four bidders: France's Thales, in a consortium with European group MBDA and the Polish state defense group; the Israeli government; Raytheon of the United States; and the MEADS consortium led by Lockheed Martin.

One of the bidders, MEADS, said the tender was worth about $5 billion, but experts say the whole missile defense system could be worth as much as 40 billion zlotys ($13 billion), including maintenance costs. It is to be completed by the end of 2022.

Mroczek said the decision to accelerate the process was partly caused by Russia's military intervention in Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula.
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The first phase of the Polish system is to comprise eight sets of mid-range interceptor rockets, which may later be supplemented by short-range ones. Poland has already passed legislation to secure funding for the shield, a Defense Ministry spokesman said.
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This system would be in addition to the US based system that is scheduled for deployment in 2018.  I would go with the Israeli system.  It has been tested under fire.  But to stop a Russian invasion they are going to also need some sophisticated anti tank weapons.  The missle defense system will help them resist Russian nuclear blackmail.