Warsaw Defence Plan: UK and Poland to build missiles and drones together

UK Defence Secretary Wes Streeting and Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz signed the Warsaw Defence Plan in Warsaw on 27 October 2026. The plan commits the two countries to cooperate across sea, land, air, cyber and industry to strengthen deterrence on NATO's eastern flank, according to the UK Ministry of Defence.

Its industrial core is specific: joint development of next-generation air defence missiles and drone technologies, and expanded large-calibre ammunition production. The plan also covers air and missile defence, unmanned systems, cybersecurity, maritime security and defence manufacturing. It sets out the first phase of military cooperation under the existing UK-Poland Security and Defence Partnership Treaty.

Streeting said the plan honours nearly a century of UK-Poland defence cooperation and supports Ukraine, framing it as building a stronger Europe within a stronger NATO.

The timing is part of the story. The plan was signed one day after the E5 defence ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom jointly stated on 26 October 2026 that Russia represents the most acute and long-term threat to Euro-Atlantic security and stability. That statement cited Russia's ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine, continued violations of Allied airspace, acts of sabotage and growing use of multi-domain hybrid attacks as the broader threat context. It did not identify a specific new Russian military action near Poland as the trigger for the Warsaw plan.

What the plan does not yet contain is as notable as what it does.

That gap matters because production decisions, not ministerial meetings, determine how quickly Europe can sustain deterrence and support Ukraine. The Warsaw Defence Plan signals deeper UK-Poland defence industrial integration at a moment when European NATO members are trying to take more responsibility for their own security. It is less a standalone headline than a piece of a wider rearmament and industrial-cooperation architecture on NATO's eastern flank — one whose scale will be measured in missiles, drones and shells, not in signatures.