ABSTRACT
In September 1999, Poland introduced mandatory offsets legislation in preparation for future acquisitions of western defense equipment. At the end of 2002, Poland embarked on two large equipment purchases: the US$3.5 billion procurement of 48 F-16C/D from the USA and the €1.18 billion acquisition of 690 armored vehicles from Finland. Each transaction involves a major offset deal. The Finnish transaction is expected to result in vehicle production in Poland and the US purchase involves an offset package valued at over US$6 billion. Offsets, broadly-defined to include countertrade, bundling, and local content arrangements (see Markowski and Hall, 2004a), are seen as a means of securing work for the ailing defense industry, popularly referred to by Poles as zbrojeniowka, arguably one of the very few remnants of Soviet-type enterprise.
