Poland Launches wGotowości Programme to Teach Civilian Survival Skills and Promote Armed Forces

Poland has launched the wGotowości programme to teach civilians survival skills during crises. The initiative began in November 2025 and is described by Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz as the largest program of universal, voluntary defence training in Polish history. Kosiniak-Kamysz said he hoped 400,000 people would complete wGotowości training sessions by the end of 2026.

The programme has no upper age limit and includes teenagers to seniors. Col. Prof. Dariusz Kozerawski, a reserve colonel of the Polish Army and member of the Department of National Security at the Jagiellonian University, stated that the wGotowości programs are not actual training for military reservists but projects promoting the military within society for introductory purposes.

Jacek Raubo, a defence and security expert, said the programme is about promoting the Polish Army and other security structures among the public. He noted that Poland currently offers various forms of military service while recruitment for uniformed services is expanding.

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Poland has increased its military spending to 5 percent of its gross domestic product.

The country has set a target of 300,000 troops by 2039. One of the first of three US-made F-35 aircraft in Polish Air Force colours was observed at the 32nd Tactical Air Base in Lask, central Poland, on May 22, 2026. Volunteers in Poland's army learned to apply camouflage face paint during basic training in Nowogrod, Poland, on June 20, 2024.

Kozerawski said the overloading of operational forces with tasks like conducting the Readiness program, protecting railway lines, patrolling the Polish-Belarusian border and cleaning up after floods should be performed by other formations subordinate to the Ministry of Interior and Administration.