Poland Moves to Acquire Deep Strike Missiles to Hold Key Russian Military Assets at Risk.

Polish officials are renewing calls for credible deep strike weapons as Russian forces rehearse operations near the Suwalki Gap and the Baltic region. The push reflects a broader NATO shift toward long-range precision strike as a central tool for deterrence and crisis response.

Poland is accelerating its search for longer-range strike options, according to TVP World, as Warsaw faces a strategic environment shaped by Russian activity in Kaliningrad, Belarus, and western Russia. Senior officials argue that deep-strike capability is now a core requirement for national survival, not a theoretical debate, and defense planners say the trend aligns with NATO guidance that elevates precision attacks hundreds of kilometers behind enemy lines to a top-tier priority. European analysts note that Poland and Germany increasingly view these systems as tools for deterrence by punishment, sitting between conventional artillery and the nuclear threshold while remaining fully conventional.
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Poland is rapidly expanding its deep strike missile arsenal, combining domestic production of Homar-K and CTM-290 Systems with advanced U.S. weapons such as JASSM-ER and future PrSM, to ensure it can hold key Russian military targets at long range and strengthen NATO deterrence on the Eastern flank (Picture source: Army Recognition Edit).

NATO thinking has shifted in the same direction. Deep precision strike, broadly defined as the ability to attack targets hundreds of kilometers behind enemy lines with meter-class accuracy, has been elevated to one of the Alliance’s top capability priorities. European defense assessments note that Poland and Germany view such systems as instruments of deterrence by punishment, filling the space between traditional artillery and nuclear forces while remaining firmly conventional.

Poland already fields several deep-strike tools, though they are heavily air-focused. The Polish Air Force operates AGM-158 JASSM cruise missiles on its F-16C/D fleet, with the baseline variant reaching about 370 kilometers. Warsaw has expanded this capability by acquiring more than 300 AGM-158/B-2 JASSM-ERs, giving it a 1,000-kilometer-class strike option able to reach deep into Russian territory from Polish airspace. These missiles, combined with future F-35A deliveries and planned AARGM-ER and JSM integrations, will create a potent airborne strike complex against both air defenses and high-value fixed targets.

On the ground, however, the picture is more mixed. Poland is building one of the largest rocket artillery forces in NATO, with hundreds of Homar A launchers based on the HIMARS design and nearly 300 Homar-K systems derived from South Korea’s K239 Chunmoo and mounted on Jelcz 8x8 trucks. These launchers can fire 239 mm guided rockets out to roughly 80 kilometers and CTM-290 tactical ballistic missiles reaching around 290 kilometers, already enough to threaten Russian formations in Kaliningrad and parts of Belarus from deep inside Poland.

Crucially for Warsaw’s industrial strategy, Homar-K is being localized. Polish and Korean partners are establishing production lines for CGR-080 rockets in Poland, with CTM-290 ballistic missiles to follow and space for future 150 to 200 kilometer class munitions, while a joint venture with WB Group aims to expand European manufacture of long-range missiles and subsystems. This reduces dependence on overstretched US production, anchors high-end missile engineering in the Polish defense sector, and ensures stockpiles can be replenished during a prolonged crisis.

Even so, range gaps remain. ATACMS missiles for HIMARS, with about 300 kilometers of reach, are entering production for Poland but will be fielded in relatively modest quantities. To push further, Warsaw is pursuing the US Precision Strike Missile, a HIMARS-compatible ballistic weapon expected to reach roughly 500 kilometers in its early blocks and more in later iterations, with two missiles per launcher pod and an evolving seeker for mobile targets such as air defense radars or ships of the Baltic Fleet. In parallel, Poland has joined a European framework likely to produce a ground-launched cruise missile with ranges at or beyond 1,000 kilometers under a shared multinational program.

The missiles that best fit the Polish strategy share several traits. First is range: a layered mix of around 300, 500, and 1,000 kilometers allows coverage of Kaliningrad, Belarusian launch areas, key nodes such as Smolensk and Bryansk, and selected targets deeper in western Russia while firing from protected positions in central and western Poland. Second is precision, ideally single-digit meter CEP using GPS and inertial guidance backed by imaging infrared or radar seekers for terminal homing. Third is survivability: low observable air-launched cruise missiles like JASSM-ER, quasi-ballistic trajectories for weapons such as PrSM or CTM-290, and highly mobile road launchers complicate Russian air and missile defense planning.

Deep strike missiles allow Poland and NATO to dismantle Russia’s campaign architecture by hitting command posts, ammunition depots, air bases, and long-range missile batteries before they can fully engage Polish territory. Lessons from the war in Ukraine underscore how long-range precision strike has enabled both sides to attrit logistics far from the front, slowing offensives and increasing the cost of sustained operations. For Poland, which holds the most exposed land frontier in NATO, not possessing such a capability would force reliance on manned aircraft operating inside dense Russian air defenses or waiting for allied fire support.

If Warsaw succeeds in building a balanced portfolio of locally produced CTM-290 and future rockets, imported ATACMS and PrSM for Homar-A, and substantial stocks of JASSM-ER and future European ground-launched cruise missiles, it will shift from a front-line consumer of NATO strike support to one of the Alliance’s principal providers of deep fires on the eastern flank. That transformation, rooted in real industrial capacity inside Poland, reflects the core argument behind Poland’s push for deep strike missiles: that deterrence rests not on rhetoric, but on launchers, warheads, and targeting networks already in Polish hands.