By 2018 Poland will spend 60 billion zlotys (roughly 24.6 billion U.S. dollars) to modernize its armed forces, Defense Minister Bogdan Klich said Monday.

A total of "60 billion zlotys spent to modernize the army is the limit of our financial capacities, but not of our dreams," the minister said while inaugurating the 16th International Defense Industry Fair in Kielce, southern Poland. Such outlays would make it possible to transform the Polish armed forces into a modern army," the minister stressed. We want to launch several new programs to modernize the armed forces in the long term," Polish news agency PAP quoted Klich as saying.

The minister also intends to launch a program to equip the army with modern helicopters and another to build new naval ships. Several other modernization programs are currently being worked on. In August the Polish government announced Poland would switch from a conscript to fully professional military numbering 120,000 personnel from 2010. Present at the fair are nearly 400 firms from 22 countries. The Kielce exhibition is the third biggest event of the type in Europe.

Sergyi Way
10.09.2008

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