Poland plans to increase its army to 240,000 soldiers in 2025

According to the draft budget for 2025, Poland plans to increase the army to 298,871 people, of whom 241,728 will be military personnel.

Here's What We Know

Dziennik Zbrojny notes that the draft budget for 2025 provides for planned restrictions on the average annual number of military personnel.

These restrictions indicate that next year, the Polish Army will have up to 150,000 contract soldiers and 8,028 contract soldiers in training; 44,000 territorial defence soldiers; 35,000 soldiers in voluntary basic military service and 4,700 soldiers in voluntary service who will be trained.

In addition, there will be 30,000 active reserve servicemen, including 5,000 active reserve servicemen on duty. There will also be 57,143 civilian employees.

The Polish army has been gradually increasing its numbers for several years now, and the main reason for this is Russia's war against Ukraine.

In 2019, the Ministry of Defence of Poland announced plans to double the size of the national armed forces, calling it one of its key priorities. At that time, the Polish army had more than 100,000 soldiers, and the goal was to increase their number to more than 200,000.

As of March 2023, the Polish army, together with the territorial defence forces, numbered 160,000 soldiers. According to Defence24, as of November 2023, the number of Polish army personnel, including the territorial defence forces, had increased to 193,646.

Source: Dziennik Zbrojny