{"id":21620,"date":"2026-08-17T12:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T12:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/21620\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T12:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T12:30:10","slug":"polish-military-tops-220000-active-personnel-eyes-half-million-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/21620\/","title":{"rendered":"Polish Military Tops 220,000 Active Personnel, Eyes Half-Million Force"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/dronefront.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">&#13;<br \/>\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.thedefensepost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/WhatsAppVideo2026-05-15at09.23.58.gif\" alt=\"The Drone Front\" width=\"1280\" height=\"539\"\/>&#13;<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Poland\u2019s armed forces have surpassed 220,000 active personnel after adding around 5,000 service members since the beginning of the year, local news <a href=\"https:\/\/tvpworld.com\/94853783\/polands-army-passes-220000-troops-as-warsaw-targets-500000\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The total includes approximately 156,000 professional soldiers and 40,000 members of the Territorial Defense Forces, with the remainder serving under other active-duty arrangements.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By 2039, Warsaw aims to build a half-million-strong military comprising 250,000 operational troops, 50,000 territorial soldiers and 200,000 reservists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To support this expansion, Poland is offering military education programs, summer initiatives and introductory training days.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Volunteers can also complete a month of basic training before progressing to specialist instruction and potentially entering professional service.<\/p>\n<p>A Broader Defense Push<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The expansion of Poland\u2019s armed forces is part of a wider security drive launched in response to Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and growing <a href=\"https:\/\/thedefensepost.com\/2025\/09\/11\/poland-russian-drone-intrusion\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">concern over sabotage and other hybrid operations<\/a> linked to Moscow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thedefensepost.com\/2025\/04\/04\/poland-5-gdp-defense-spending\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Military spending reached 4.7 percent of GDP in 2025<\/a>, the highest proportion among NATO members, and Warsaw plans to raise it to 5 percent this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alongside recruiting more soldiers, the European nation is seeking to <a href=\"https:\/\/thedefensepost.com\/2025\/11\/10\/poland-civilian-defense-training\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">prepare civilians for potential crises<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last year, the government introduced the voluntary \u201cAt Readiness\u201d program, offering one-day courses in personal safety, survival, emergency medical response and cybersecurity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Around 20,000 people were expected to complete individual courses during its first two months, with participation across all training formats projected to reach 100,000 by the end of 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Poland\u2019s Defense Ministry now plans to expand the initiative to approximately 400,000 participants through civilian courses, group programs, reserve training, and voluntary military service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; &#13; Poland\u2019s armed forces have surpassed 220,000 active personnel after adding around 5,000 service members since the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9,1040],"class_list":["post-21620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-poland","tag-poland","tag-polish-armed-forces"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}