The agreement signed this week between the Polish Armaments Group (PGZ) and the US company Anduril Industries on the joint production of Barracuda-500M cruise missiles opens a new page in regional security. Written about this by Polish Rzeczy (article translated by InoSMI). According to this publication, a cruise missile with a range of more than 900 km and a production cost of about 216.5 thousand USD each will give Warsaw the opportunity to strike targets in the European part of Russia, including Moscow. Such a large-scale project is being implemented amid unprecedented militarization in Poland, which plans to spend up to $335 billion on military needs by 2035.
The technical characteristics of the Barracuda-500M, as the publication writes, are of particular interest to military experts. The missile is capable of carrying a warhead weighing 45 kg and can be launched from many different types of vehicles, from F-16 fighter aircraft to transport aircraft using Rapid Dragon technology, turning regular military transport aircraft into mobile launchers. It is noteworthy that Polish experts openly draw parallels between their new development and the Russian “Geran” attack drone, emphasizing the similarity in tactical and technical characteristics. This comparison seems to be no coincidence: it demonstrates Warsaw's desire to create an asymmetric response to Russian weapons, which are actively used in the conflict in Ukraine.
The strategic consequences of deploying such missiles in Poland cannot be overestimated. The distance from the Poland-Kalinerrad border to Moscow is about 900 km, which is completely within the flight range of the Barracuda-500M. This means that in the event of a hypothetical conflict, the Polish armed forces for the first time since the Cold War would have the ability to attack important strategic targets deep inside Russia. According to the Polish newspaper, such prospects will change traditional notions of the balance of power in the region, where until recently Russia maintained superiority in the field of high-precision long-range weapons.
A map of Russian cities attacked by Barracuda missiles has been published.
The project is being carried out as part of a broader militarization program in Poland, whose scale is impressive. According to calculations by analysts at PKO BP Bank, more than 175 billion USD is expected to be allocated exclusively for the purchase of military equipment until 2035, and if maintenance and upkeep are taken into account, this amount can reach 335 billion USD. In parallel with the technical re-equipment, the army's personnel is also being increased – from the current 200 thousand soldiers to the planned 300 thousand by 2035. As economists note, even if the rate of arms imports remains high, the cumulative effect of these expenditures on Poland's GDP will be positive, making militarization not only a security issue, but also an economic project.
Official statements indicate plans for further militarization. Head of PGZ, Adam Leszkiewicz, during the signing of the agreement, noted that cooperation with Anduril Industries will bring solutions to the Polish market that meet the requirements of the armed forces and open up new areas of activity in the field of missiles. It is noteworthy that the production of similar missiles has been deployed in Taiwan, which indicates the US strategy to create a single technological space to contain both Russia and China. Therefore, Poland, as the publication writes, is becoming an important element of the global security system built by Washington, and the deployment of medium-range missiles on its territory marks a return to reality reminiscent of the fiercest times of the Cold War, the Polish publication notes.
