Mariusz Błaszczak was speaking during a visit to Fort Sill, a US Army base in the southern state of Oklahoma, where Polish soldiers are learning to operate the American-made Patriot air defence system, state news agency PAP reported.
"By the end of next year, the first Patriot systems will be delivered to our country," Błaszczak said during a press conference.
"There will also be soldiers trained to handle them--everything is going according to plan," he added.
Poland in March 2018 signed what officials described as a historic deal to buy American-made Patriot missile defence systems for USD 4.75 billion.
Błaszczak told reporters on Thursday that Polish soldiers undergoing training in the southern US state of Oklahoma were learning to work together with both their American colleagues and troops from other NATO countries.
"Everything that our soldiers are learning at Fort Sill helps build interoperability and cooperation between Polish and American troops as well as NATO forces in general," Błaszczak said.
He told a news conference a day earlier he had "very successful" talks with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin when the two met at the Pentagon.
Błaszczak is on a three-day visit to the United States, where he is holding talks with American officials about European security and bilateral military deals, according to the Polish defence ministry.
After meeting Austin at the Pentagon on Wednesday, Błaszczak told reporters the talks focused on bilateral military cooperation, ways of "strengthening Polish-American defence ties and plans to "equip the Polish Army with modern hardware," including US-made Abrams tanks.
Officials announced this summer that Poland would buy 250 Abrams tanks from the United States as part of a multibillion deal with Washington.
"Everything indicates that the first Abrams tanks will be made available for use by the Polish Army next year," Błaszczak told reporters on Wednesday.
He added that a senior US Army official would come to Poland at the end of October to discuss the details of the purchase.
He also said that equipping the Polish Army with Abrams tanks would help "build interoperability between American and Polish forces."
Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak. Photo: PAP/Leszek Szymański
The itinerary of Błaszczak's trip stateside also includes a visit to Doylestown, Pennsylvania, where he is expected to unveil a plaque on Friday to commemorate the 1920 Battle of Warsaw against the Russian Bolsheviks, a major European battle that has been listed among the most important battles in the history of the world.
Poland's president in November last year ratified a major military deal with the United States under which at least 1,000 extra American troops are expected to be stationed in the NATO eastern-flank country.
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Source: IAR, gov.pl