Poland is rearming itself at high speed — could Canada take a lesson from Warsaw?

A wind-swept pier at a naval port in Gdynia, Poland was the scene last December of an extraordi‐ nary display — one that Canada's defence commu‐ nity looks upon today with envy.

Lined up track-to-track on the pier that day, their gun barrels elevated, were twodozen Thunder K9-A1 selfpropelled howitzers manufac‐ tured in South Korea. Nearby, 10 Black Panther K2 54-tonne main battle tanks were parked.

The armoured vehicles and big guns represented the vanguard of a $13 billion US blockbuster defence agree‐ ment between Warsaw and Seoul.

What made the scene ex‐ ceptional was the fact the contract between the two na‐ tions was signed barely four months before the big tanks and guns rolled onto the pier.

In the defence procure‐ ment world, that is lightspeed. The deal has been a topic of conversation ahead of the annual Canadian Asso‐ ciation of Defence and Securi‐ ty Industry trade show, which begins Wednesday in Ottawa.

South Korea plans to deliv‐ er to Poland 180 K2 tanks, 212 K9 howitzers and 288 K239

Chunmoo K-MLRS (Korean Multiple Launch Rocket Sys‐ tem) similar to the Americanbuilt HIMARS system, which has proven critical to Ukraine's defence in its war with Russia.

And that's only the tip of the iceberg. Eventually, Poland intends to buy up to 1,000 of the South Korean tanks, 688 of the howitzers and 48 FA-50 jet fighters, which can be used as trainers and light combat aircraft.

It is a massive rearmament program, driven partly by Poland's need to replenish stocks of equipment donated to Ukraine and partly by the fear of what might come next should Russia succeed in top‐ pling the government in Kyiv.

"We decided to do it as quickly as possible because we are the front country," said Tomasz Grodzki, speaker of Poland's Senate, in a recent interview with CBC News.

The speed of Poland's pro‐ curement project stands in stark contrast to the pace of military procurement in Cana‐ da. Ottawa still has no firm timeline for a plan — an‐ nounced in March by Defence Minister Anita Anand — to fast-track on an "urgent oper‐ ational basis" the purchase of portable anti-tank missiles, uncrewed counter-drone sys‐ tems and ground-based air defence systems for troops in Latvia.

When announced Anand said she expected a staggered delivery of the systems be‐ tween late 2023 and some‐ time in 2024 but there is no firm schedule.

Defence procurement ex‐ pert Dave Perry chalks it up to the lack of a sense of urgency in Canada.

"Poland is right on the bor‐ der and I think has a much more clear focus, and much greater sense of urgency, that its troops need equipment, not 10 years, or 15 or 20 years from now, but they need equipment now," said Perry, vice president of the Canadi‐ an Global Affairs Institute. The institute has occasionally hosted conferences spon‐ sored by defence contractors.

"Even the projects that we deem to be urgent require‐ ments seem to just have pro‐ jects move to the front of a slow-moving line, rather than having any unique or special process to genuinely expedite them to ensure that we get that material into the hands of troops as quickly as possi‐ ble, or at least for when they're going to need it."

Canada must abandon 'illusions' about Russia

Unlike the case in Canada, there is no political disagree‐ ment in Poland over defence policy and military procure‐ ment and the deal with South Korean was passed swiftly.

"We decided unanimously — both sides of the political scene in Poland — to not de‐ lay," said Grodzki, who added that Poland's proximity to Russia — and its long history of being controlled or ab‐ sorbed by its neighbour — is a major factor in his country's determination to arm itself.

The defence deal is expect‐ ed to push Poland's defence spending up to four per cent of its gross domestic product, he added.

Grodzki said it's not up to him to assess the internal pol‐ itics of an ally — but he urged Canadian politicians on an in‐ dividual level to leave behind their "illusions ... about the nature of Russia."

"I understand [Canada], it's a distance from Ukraine, from Russia. So maybe it's a little bit more difficult to un‐ derstand that the world is changing," he said.

Poland's Prime Minis‐ ter Mateusz Morawiecki will visit Canada on Friday. He and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are expected to dis‐ cuss "the regional defence and security challenges result‐ ing from Russia's brutal and unjustifiable war of aggres‐ sion against Ukraine," accord‐ ing to a statement from the

Prime Minister's Office.

During Trudeau's recent visit to South Korea, there was intense speculation in lo‐ cal media about whether Canada would consider pur‐ chasing submarines from Daewoo Shipbuilding & Ma‐ rine Engineering (DSME) and Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI).

A senior Canadian govern‐ ment official, speaking on background, said the subject of buying submarines was not raised by either side when Trudeau met with South Ko‐ rean President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, South Korean com‐ panies have stepped up their presence in the global arms market. The country's ambas‐ sador to Canada, Lim Woong‐ soon, said that hasn't been driven entirely by a desire to fill the gap in the international arms shortage created by the war.

Like Poland, South Korea has a belligerent neighbour.

"Under the growing threat from North Korea, [South] Ko‐ rea should always be ready to defend ourselves," the am‐ bassador said. "Therefore, we have more than 500,000strong standing army, with a huge production line for the large-scale delivery of weapon systems" to meet the coun‐ try's domestic needs.

The abundance of equip‐ ment is one reason why the country was able to quickly deliver armoured vehicles to Poland.

South Korea's weapons ex‐ ports rose to $17.3 billion last year, partly on the strength of the deal with Warsaw, which will see most of the tanks con‐ structed at a factory in Poland — something Lim said his country's military export poli‐ cy encourages.

"Our policy for military ex‐ ports is that we seek to build security partnerships with the purchasing country, not just a one-off business transaction," he said.

"That's why we are rather open and generous to tech‐ nology transplant and joint local production in the pro‐ tection contract. Since we see the military exports as the starting of our long-term se‐ curity partnership, we stand ready to provide all parts and pieces necessary for mainte‐ nance and upgrade over a prolonged time."

Even though it is arming Poland, a NATO ally, Seoul has shied away from weapons to Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly threatened selling

South Korea last October, saying if it armed the govern‐ ment in Kyiv, he would ship advanced weapons to North

Korea.

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