Army Equipment Modernization - Helicopters
The country planned to launch a tender in 2015 [three years earlier than originally envisaged] for light and heavy-lift helicopters.
PZL-Swidnik, the Polish company fully owned by Leonardo, was awarded a contract on 02 July 2022 by the Polish Ministry of Defence (MoD) worth 8.25 billion PLN gross (approximately EUR 1.76 billion) for the supply of 32 AW149 multirole helicopters. The state-of-the-art AW149 helicopters will be able to carry out missions including troop transport and air support; the contract also includes logistics, training and simulator packages.
The new helicopters will carry out missions including troop transport and air support. The equipment of the helicopters will also allow them to be used for casualty evacuation, search and rescue in combat operations and for the transport of goods and supplies. The helicopters’ configuration, fully meeting the requirements of the Polish Armed Forces, will also include, among others, observation systems, small arms, guided/unguided rockets and missiles and self-defence systems. The armament, depending on the helicopter variant and configuration, can be installed in the cabin or on the helicopter's external hard points. The deliveries of the helicopters will be made in the 2023-2029 period.
Acting as the prime contractor, PZL-Swidnik will host a local production line for these new helicopters. Leonardo will therefore undertake further investments in its Polish facility in addition to approximately 1 billion EUR already invested since 2010, which has significantly strengthened the competitiveness and the industrial capabilities of PZL-Swidnik. This provides an important contribution to the Polish aerospace and defence industry, which will enable domestic production, the establishment of a logistic base and thorough technical support for the Polish MoD’s AW149s, in line with Leonardo and PZL-Swidnik’s commitment to deliver industrial benefits to Poland.
Mi-8/17 replacement
In the mid 2010s, the Ministry of Defense, under the direction of Tomasz Siemoniak, tried to obtain 50 units of Airbus H-225M. A contract was awarded to Airbus, however, because of the political change in Poland, the deal was cancelled as the Poles hoped to obtain helicopters from Sikorski, namely the UH-60s, but this did not happen. Not to mention the Leonardo/AugustaWestland AW-101 which performed well during demonstrations in Poland in 2017, but on its way home suffered engine failures. The nature of Poland’s rather unfortunate purchasing politics has led to a situation in which there was no potential source of helicopters for the Polish Armed Forces.
Poland announced 22 April 2015 it would had selected French Airbus Group helicopters as it sped up the modernization of its military amid tensions with Russia. Poland named the H225M Caracal (formerly known as the EC725) of Airbus Helicopters as its preferred choice in a $3 billion utility helicopter tender, subject to army testing, dropping US and Italian competitors.
It trimmed the potential order from an original 70 helicopters to 50. This would still represent Poland's biggest defense acquisition from Western Europe since the end of the Cold War. Deliveries could begin as early as 2017. The new helicopters will replace Poland's Mil Mi-8/17 'Hip' utility helicopters in service with the Polish Army and Air Force and Polish Navy Aviation's Mi-14 'Haze' ASW helicopters.
The helicopter decision was seen as delicate because rival bidders Sikorsky, United Technologies Corp's helicopter unit in the United States, and AgustaWestland, owned by Italy's Finmeccanica, have factories in Poland whose unions had warned of job losses.
On 22 April 2015 it was announced that Poland would purchase 50 Eurocopter EC725 helicopters, produced by France-based Airbus Helicopters. Three firms were competing in the tender for multi-task military helicopters, which apart from Airbus consisted of the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation and Agusta Westland PZL Swidnik. It had previously been expected that Poland would buy 70 helicopters, but the government decided to delay purchasing some of the planned transport helicopters as Soviet-built Mi-17 helicopters currently in use by the Polish Armed Forces can remain in service for the immediate future.
The Eurocopter order consists of 34 ‘specialized’ helicopters for anti-submarine warfare, the Special Forces and medical evacuations, with 16 pure transport ones. According to the deputy head of the Ministry of Defence, Czeslaw Mroczek, the revised helicopter order is worth PLN 13 billion (EUR 3.2 billion) and the helicopters will be delivered within two years.
In May 2015, Airbus’s aircraft passed required tests, opening the door for the next stage of negotiations with the Polish army. "The helicopter meets the requirements that were specified by the [Polish] Armed Forces, as well as all the conditions that were specified in the offer by Airbus,” said Miroslaw Rózanski from the Polish Armed Forces.
The tests included 23 issues which were defined by a group of verification. These fell under four areas of testing: performance of the helicopter, its structure, the principle of common platforms, and equipment. “The tests took place under various conditions: on the ground and in the air during rehearsals, both day and night, where weather conditions were also variable,” Rózanski told a press conference. The negotiations would now move on to an offset agreement which will be dealt with by the Economy Ministry.
Meanwhile, a number of MPs from the conservative opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, including Bartosz Kownacki and Antoni Macierewicz, called on the government to halt the purchase of the helicopters from Airbus. “We have submitted a draft desideratum, which […] calls on the government to refrain from signing the agreement for the purchase of these utility helicopters,” PiS’s Bartosz Kownacki told a press conference. Macierewicz added that “Someone is in a hurry to spend vast sums of money on a foreign producer.”
On 04 October 2016, Poland's Development Ministry said that the negotiating positions of the two sides on the purchase of 50 Caracal helicopters for 13,5 billion zlotys ($3.5 billion) were rather different and further talks were pointless. The earlier decision to buy helicopters from Airbus was made by the previous government, led by center-right, pro-European Civic Platform party, as part of plans to modernize Warsaw’s military. The original deal was highly criticized by trade unions in two Polish aviation plants. The conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government indicated that it might cancel the deal after winning elections in 2015.
"The heads of the Polish and French foreign ministries spoke about the current bilateral cooperation. The ministers discussed, among other things, the issue of termination of the tender for a multipurpose helicopter for the Polish army," Polish Foreign Ministry's spokesman Rafal Sobchak said. Macierewicz criticized the position of aerospace giant Airbus Defense and Space during negotiations. "France has good military products, we are interested [in them], but we will never accept to be treated like a third world country. The country, which accepts [that kind of treatment], will lose a possibility for any kind of international activity," he said, according to Polish Television.
Following the collapse of a deal with France, Poland said it may build its own fleet of S-70i Black Hawk helicopters, in an effort to upgrade its armed forces. Poland canceled negotiations with France on the purchase of 50 French Airbus H225M Caracal helicopters. That deal would have been worth roughly $3.5 billion. But the Polish military is still eager to upgrade its forces. According to Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz, Warsaw will purchase between 10-12 Polish-made S-70i Black Hawks for its special forces. "I am convinced that thanks to this, Polish technologies will develop and Polish industry will develop," he said, according to DoD Buzz. Prime Minister Beata Szydlo stressed the importance of promoting the country’s domestic industry. "It’s important that the military have Polish equipment made by Polish workers," he said, according to DoD Buzz.
The real issue is a lack of the proper replacement for the Mi-8/17 platform. Since the H-225M contract collapsed, there had been no real attempts to obtain another platform in exchange. The Ministry of Defense, under Antoni Macierewicz, successfully sabotaged itself in efforts to do so. The struggle to hastly purchase S-70i, infamously dubbed Poor-Hawks due to lack of any specialistic equipment onboard, resulted in 3 helicopters delivered to the Polish police.
Kruk (Raven) - attack helicopter
The country planned to launch a tender in 2015 [three years earlier than originally envisaged] to replace its old fleet of Russian Helicopters Mi-24 attack helicopters with 32 new attack helicopters under the 'Kruk' (Raven) program. The attack helicopters were originally scheduled to be delivered from 2020. However, statements from Poland's ministry of national defence issued on 08 July 2014 indicated an accelerated timeline, without offering specifics.
The AH-64 Apache was under consideration for the Polish Kruk Attack Helicopter Program. The Boeing [ AH-64 Apache attack helicopter made its first appearance at the largest defense show in Poland – the MSPO International Defence Industry Exhibition – in Kielce, September 1-4, 2015. The AH-64 Apache is currently under consideration for the Polish Kruk (Raven) Attack Helicopter Program. It is the most advanced multirole combat helicopter and the only available aircraft equipped with fire control radar and electro-optical sensors for both pilots.
Polish military experts had initially suggested Boeing's AH-64 Apache, AgustaWestland's AW-129 Mangusta and Eurocopter's EC-Tiger as potential candidates.
On 05 May 2016 Polish Defense Ministry spokesman Bartlomiej Misiewicz said that the military planned to acquire 24 Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopters as part of a $1.4 billion deal. "The drafting of tactical-technical requirements was completed, and, by the end of June, a decision regarding the mode of acquiring combat helicopters will be made," Misiewicz said.
The forthcoming deal, estimated to be worth 5-6 billion zlotys ($1.3-$1.6 billion), is most likely to be awarded to Boeing in the walkup to the forthcoming NATO summit in Warsaw in July 2016. The drafting of tactical-technical requirements was completed, and, by the end of June, a decision regarding the mode of acquiring combat helicopters will be made,” ministry spokesman Bartlomiej Misiewicz said. Eight of the 24 Apaches were to be acquired in an assembled form, while the rest are to be put together in Poland.
In March 2021 the Polish Ministry of National Defence (MND) reset plans for its long-delayed Kruk attack helicopter programme, reneging on a previous commitment to acquire 32 new aircraft in the process. A tender had been expected to commence in 2020 with up to 16 helicopters set to be delivered by 2026 — but no such progress was made and authorities now admit Kruk is currently at an ‘analytical and conceptual’ phase.
Poland is to choose between the Boeing AH-64E Apache Guardian and Bell AH-1Z Viper to fulfil its attack helicopter requirement, the government said on 21 April 2022. The two US types have been shortlisted to fulfil the Polish Ministry of National Defence (MND) Kruk (Raven) requirement to replace the army's ageing Mil Mi-24 ‘Hind' helicopters.
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