Poland Lacks Funds for Planned Purchase of AIM-120D-3 Missiles

The Polish Ministry of Finance has blocked the purchase of AIM-120D-3 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles for Polish F-35A Husarz multi-role fighters on credit due to a lack of funds.

This was reported by the Polish military publication Dziennik Zbrojny.

In April 2025, the US State Department approved Poland’s possible purchase of 400 AIM-120D-3 AMRAAM guided missiles with a maximum estimated order value of $1.33 billion. The missiles were intended for 32 F-35A Husarz fighters purchased by Poland.

On September 23rd, Polish MP Mariusz Błaszczak announced that documents he had received indicated that the Ministry of National Defence could not find the funds to purchase missiles for the F-35 fighters.

This information was confirmed on September 25th this year during a meeting of the standing subcommittee on the Polish defense industry and technical modernization of the Polish Armed Forces. During the meeting, Colonel Piotr Palug, deputy head of the Armaments Agency, representing the institution, confirmed the blocking of the purchase.

“Regarding the AIM-120D medium-range guided missiles, I would like to inform you that their purchase was planned to be financed by credit funds from the Support Fund (FWSZ). Any purchase of military equipment from the Support Fund requires the approval of the steering group mentioned here by the honorable deputy. At present, the Armaments Agency does not have approval for the purchase of these missiles,” he said.

The FWSZ steering group includes the representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the National Economy Bank, and the Ministry of National Defence, which also represents the Armaments Agency.

In the case of the purchase of military equipment using credit funds from the Military Equipment Fund, the Ministry of National Defence must guarantee that the debt will be repaid in subsequent years from funds planned under Part 29 of the state budget, ‘National Defence.’ According to Dziennik Zbrojny, it has probably become clear that the Ministry of National Defence cannot provide such a guarantee due to the lack of available funds in the multi-year financial plan.

This follows from the need to secure funds under Part 29 of the budget between 2025 and 2039 for:

• expenditures on multi-year contracts for the supply of military equipment financed from the Technical Modernization Plan, amounting to several hundred billion zlotys;
• VAT expenditure on multi-year contracts for the supply of military equipment, partially financed from the FWSZ (tax on these contracts is also paid under Part 29 of the budget) — over PLN 70 billion — USD 19.2 billion (according to the publication’s estimates);
• expenditures for the repayment of FWSZ debt in the amount of over PLN 300 billion — USD 82.25 billion (according to the publication’s estimates).

According to the publication, a similar situation already occurred in July this year. At that time, there were insufficient funds to finance a contract for the supply of 25 American M1150 ABV engineering vehicles.

This contract was also planned to be financed from the Armed Forces Support Fund. However, the Ministry of Finance’s requirement that the Ministry of Defence guarantee the repayment of the loan led to the abandonment of the initial plan. In the end, the contract was financed by abandoning other lower-level priorities.

But if it was necessary to ‘find’ about PLN 530 million at that time, then for the AIM-120D-3 missiles, even if 200 units were purchased, at least PLN 2.5-3 billion would be needed. The lack of funds may indicate that the Ministry of Defence has reached the limit of its liquidity in financing the further technical modernization of the Polish Army, the publication concludes.