Northrop Grumman and Niewiadów to jointly produce artillery shells in Poland

US defence giant Northrop Grumman and Polish arms manufacturer Niewiadów-PGM have announced plans to jointly produce over 180,000 155-mm artillery shells annually in Poland.

The endeavour aims to meet growing demand for ammunition in Europe, including potentially supplying Ukraine, while also catering to the US market.

On Tuesday, Niewiadów announced the adoption of a framework agreement with Northrop Grumman, which follows a memorandum of understanding signed last year.

“Northrop Grumman brings its experience in the design and production of artillery ammunition and advanced manufacturing technologies, while companies belonging to the Niewiadów group contribute expertise in handloading, assembly, and final product integration,” said the Polish firm.

In comments to Reuters on Wednesday, Northrop Grumman’s managing director for Poland, Quinn Canole, said that “Poland was a natural location” to help internationalise Northrop Grumman’s technology.

He revealed that production of so-called “qualification rounds”, which are meant for testing purposes, would start “definitely inside this year”, with the aim of then ramping up output to reach a target of more than 180,000 155-mm artillery shells a year.

Mirosław Klepaczewski, head of Elaboracja Niewiadów, a subsidiary group, said on Tuesday that the new agreement demonstrates the partners’ ability to “effectively respond to the growing demand for artillery ammunition in Europe”.

However, Canole confirmed to Reuters that production would cater to the US market as well as Europe. She also did not rule out Ukraine as a potential client. Such shells are widely used by Ukraine in its defence against Russian aggression, but have been in short supply.

In March last year, the head of then-President Andrzej Duda’s National Security Bureau caused concern when he warned that Poland only had enough ammunition to defend itself “for a week or two” if it were attacked by Russia. However, his claims were rejected as untrue by the government.

Nevertheless, Poland has been since been seeking to increase its domestic ammunition production capacity. In 2024, a special law was passed granting defence firms up to 3 billion zloty (€712 million) to invest in such production.

Last year, state defence group Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa (PGZ) similarly launched a partnership with Britain’s BAE Systems to produce 155-mm artillery shells.

Prime Minister Tusk said at the time that the deal was part of government plans to increase the production of large-calibre shells to 130,000 annually within two years.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Poland has significantly increased its wider defence spending, including making large-scale purchases from the United States and South Korea of tanks, self-propelled howitzers and aircraft, among other hardware.

Poland is currently NATO’s largest relative defence spender, with its defence budget set to reach 4.8% of GDP this year. Spending began to rise under the former Law and Justice (PiS) government but has continued to expand under the current ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk.