Poland signs agreement with domestic companies to manufacture explosives

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo — Smoke clears from the barrel of an RPG-7 rocket launcher moments after it is fired by a Polish army soldier during a training exercise at the Bemowo Piskie Training Area June 15, 2018. (Michigan Army National Guard photo by Spc. Robert Douglas via U.S. Defense Visual Information Distribution Service)

WARSAW (Reuters) - The Polish government has signed a letter of intent with domestic companies to make the nitrocellulose and multi-base powders necessary for producing ammunition, it said on Monday.

Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Poland has taken significant steps to bolster its defensive capabilities in the event of future conflict.

"It is the first step towards rebuilding Polish ammunition production capabilities," Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said in a statement.

State-owned companies Grupa Azoty, Polish Armaments Group (PGZ), Mesko and Industrial Development Agency agree on the need to establish a nitrocellulose and multi-base powders factory, Grupa Azoty said in a statement.

Poland currently imports explosives from Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, France, Finland, Switzerland and Canada.

The Polish government announced plans this month to invest 3 billion zlotys ($750 million) to boost ammunition production.

"No one who observes the war in Ukraine and other conflicts in the world today can have any doubts about how important it is to have access to a large amount of ammunition for modern weapons," Kosiniak-Kamysz added.

Marcin Idzik, a PGZ board member, told Reuters this year that Poland needed to produce 155mm artillery rounds in order to ensure sufficient supplies if Russia attacks NATO.



(Reporting by Barbara Erling, editing by Ed Osmond)