POLISH RESPONSE REGARDING WEAPONS SALES TO

S E C R E T WARSAW 003410

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NP/ECNP:YWONG AND EUR/PRA:TYEAGER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/14/2015
TAGS: PARM PREL ETTC MASS PL LY IN
SUBJECT: POLISH RESPONSE REGARDING WEAPONS SALES TO
INDONESIA AND LIBYA

REF: STATE 164967


1. (S) SUMMARY. Embassy delivered reftel demarche to
Ministry of Economy (MOE) and MFA officials responsible for
export controls. Both ministries confirmed that there was an
agreement with Indonesia for sale of the Kobra air defense
system to Indonesia, but there were as yet no applications
for export. According to the MOE, the Poprad missiles in the
Kobra system can only be re-converted to MANPADS use by the
Polish firm responsible for the original conversion, Radvar.
Regarding Libya, MFA said that, although Polish defense
contractors had accompanied PM Belka to Tripoli earlier this
year, there were no current plans for any sales of lethal
military equipment (LME) to Libya. END SUMMARY.


INDONESIA
--------------

2. (S) PolMilOff met September 9 with Jacek Sliwowski
Director of the MOE Export Controls Departments, which is
Poland's Export Licensing Authority to discuss reftel
demarche on weapons sales to Indonesia and Libya. Sliwowski
confirmed that there was an agreement with the GOI allowing
the eventual sale of the Kobra air defense system to
Indonesia, but added the caveat that his office had to date
received no application for such a transaction. He expected
that Bumar, one of Poland's leading defense contractors,
would probably manage the sale.


3. (S) Sliwowski confirmed that the "Kobra" system consisted
of a vehicle platform mounted with four "Poprad" surface to
air launchers. The starting point is the "Grom" MANPADS
system manufactured by the Polish firm Mesko. Another Polish
firm, Radvar, then takes a newly produced "Grom," strips its
man-portable launcher and triggering mechanism, and installs
it in the "Poprad" vehicle launcher, with its own triggering
mechanism. According to Sliwowski only Radvar can re-convert
the missiles to MANPADS use. Sliwowski attempted to contact
Radvar by telephone to request precise technical
specifications, but was unable to reach them. However, MOE
stands ready to serve as an intermediary in requesting the
specifications, and Sliwowski suggested that in theory it
should not be difficult to obtain them if Department so
wishes.


4. (S) In a separate meeting September 12 with PolMil Chief,
Andrzej Morstin of the Export Controls Office in the MFA
Security Policy Department confirmed the MOE information. He
added that the GOP did not expect any Poprad sales to
Indonesia to be completed before 2006 or 2007.

LIBYA
--------------

5. (S) Turning to Libya, Sliwowski said that he was unaware
of any plans for Poprad sales to the GOL. Various Polish
firms had expressed interest in contracts to maintain Libya's
Warsaw Pact inventory, but MOE did not know of any plans to
sell lethal military equipment (LME) to Libya. He expressed
great interest in cooperating closely with U.S. export
control authorities to make sure that no Polish transaction
ran afoul of U.S. laws.


6. (S) Morstin told PolMilOff separately that MFA was well
aware of U.S. policy on LME transfers to Libya. He echoed
Sliwowski that there were no applications for any such sales,
and added that MFA would not approve them if they were
received. He confirmed that Polish firms had accompanied PM
Belka to Tripoli, but stressed that the focus of their
interest was assisting the GOL with weapons decommissioning
and destruction, particularly with regard to chemical weapons.
Ashe