Polish Defence Industry: Support for Polish Abrams Tanks

The signed contract is valued at $13.8 million and is expected to be completed by the end of February 2027. This deal is part of the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program, as the U.S. government holds full rights to the design of the M1 Abrams tank. It also owns the Joint Systems Manufacturing Center, the factory producing these tanks, and the Anniston Army Depot repair facilities.

General Dynamics Land Systems mainly manages the factories, production, workers, and parts of design and research-and-development work, but it functions as a subcontractor for the U.S. government. Hence the procedure for signing and executing contracts (such as the one described) may seem complicated, as the Polish Armed Forces, as the users of the Abrams tanks, make service requests through the Ministry of Defence and the Polish government, which then relays the request to the U.S. government. The U.S. government, in turn, commissions General Dynamics Land Systems to work in cooperation with the Polish Armaments Group (PGZ) to service the vehicles in Poland.

Some components will be produced in the U.S., but over time, in line with the previously presented roadmap for the program, production of many parts will also be transferred to Poland. Likewise, all maintenance work will be conducted in Poland by the domestic industry, mainly companies within the Polish Armaments Group. Eventually, the goal is to build the capacity for modernization and even production of tanks in Poland, as part of the so-called “co-production” program.

Currently, the Polish Armed Forces operate 116 M1A1FEP (Firepower Enhancement Package) tanks, which are expected to be modernized and upgraded to the latest version, the M1A2SEPv3 (System Enhancement Package version 3). In addition, the Polish Army is awaiting the delivery of the first batch of 250 new M1A2SEPv3 tanks that have been ordered. By the end of 2026, the Polish land forces will have a fleet of 366 Abrams tanks: M1A1FEP and M1A2SEPv3, as well as a large fleet of support vehicles.