On May 26, Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak informed, traditionally in social media, about signing and sending a LoR (Letter of Request) to the US government regarding the purchase of more M142 HIMARS launchers. Interestingly, there are about 500 pieces.
As Mariusz Błaszczak points out, the M142 HIMARS can be used as an armament for more than 80 artillery rocket launcher batteries, previously codenamed Homar. Importantly, the Ministry of National Defense plans a high level of polonization of the equipment and its integration with the Polish combat management system. As Lt. Col. Krzysztof Płatek, spokesman for the Armaments Agency, emphasizes, the Polonization is to include the TOPAZ system, domestic vehicles (most likely Jelcz trucks), as well as the acquisition of production technology for selected missiles.
As a reminder, the first 20 M142 HIMARS launchers (on U.S. Army-standard carriers) are to be delivered to Poland by May 2023. The intergovernmental agreement was concluded in February 2019 and has a value of USD 414 million. The ordered equipment will go to one of the missile artillery batteries, as well as the Artillery and Armament Training Center in Toruń.
So far, Lockheed Martin has provided customers around the world with over 500 M142 HIMARS launchers, which shows that a possible contract with Poland (in full scope) will be the largest in the history of the program.