WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's defence ministry and U.S. weapons maker Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) signed on Tuesday an offset deal worth about 300 million zlotys ($75 million) under the second phase of Poland's medium-range air and missile defence programme.
Offset deals are meant to compensate the country buying arms from abroad in the form of mandatory cooperation between the supplier and domestic companies.
"The signed offset agreement with Northrop Grumman International Trading Inc. includes a total of 8 commitments jointly worth about 300 million zlotys," Poland's Armament Agency said in a press release.
The deal, set to be carried out over a period of up to nine years, sees companies from Poland's PGZ group participating in the production of ammunition for Abrams tanks, Apache helicopters, and Rosomak and Borsuk armoured vehicles, among others, to meet the needs of Poland's military.
Countries geographically close to Russia like Poland and Finland have been exploring deals to build U.S. weapons in Europe, negotiating new deals to buy arms and looking to speed up existing contracts as the war in Ukraine reshaped thinking of the volume of munitions needed in future conflicts.
The armaments agency said the offset agreement would "ensure partial independence from foreign suppliers, establishing local production, maintenance and repair, training and research capacities".
($1 = 3.9947 zlotys)