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Cover Story BAE Systems with its Hawk, and the T-50, developed by Korea Aerospace Industries with Lockheed Martin. The 1.17 billion zloty contract was signed Feb. 26, finalizing the ministry’s effort, which dated back to 2010 and the relaunch of the tender in 2013. The acquired aircraft will replace Polish TS-11 Iskra trainers manufactured by Sikorsky’s local subsidiary, PZL Mielec. Deliveries of the M-346s are scheduled from 2016 to 2017, according to the ministry.
Drones – 3 billion pln deal For Poland, the developments on the Crimean peninsula are a solid reason to accelerate some of the acquisition programs for the country’s military, said senior government officials. These include the plan to modernize the Polish Air Force by expanding its fleet of UAVs. “We initially planned that key decisions relating to this program would be made on the turn of 2014 and 2015, but I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t be able to accelerate it,” Polish Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said in mid-March. Poland’s Defense Ministry is planning to acquire several hundred combat and reconnaissance drones by 2022. The program is estimated to be worth up to 3 billion zloty, reported news agency PAP. The country’s drone program runs in parallel to the Russian military’s acquisition plans. In February, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoygu announced a program to fit the Russian Armed Forces with $8.8 billion worth of new drones in combat and reconnaissance variants by 2020.
Submarines NCSS experts Tomasz Szatkowski and Jacek Bartosiak testified in the Polish Parliament in January on the new generation of submarines for the Polish Navy. During the testimony Jacek Bartosiak
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underlined the significance of geographical environment of the Baltic Sea for the operation of modern submarines and the necessity to determine the required combat performance for future submarines. Tomasz Szatkowski argued that the current stage of submarine procurement analysis is ostensibly lacking the sound defence resources management. Further,
he emphasised that the submarines could effectively increase deterrence capabilities of the Polish Navy. He also elaborated on the importance of proper coordination between the economical, industrial and defence policies.
Urgency on all fronts Poland’s military urgency means deals and tenders that earlier were debated inside the government and at Parliament level will be finalised as soon as possible, many during 2014. While governmentinsiders and advisers might earlier have debated the theoretical threat of Russia, recent developments on Poland’s eastern border (and NATO’s eastern border) have provided clarity and removed some of the naivete in some circles about the source of threats to Poland’s security. While Poland is clearly not ready today for a major military engagement, the government is moving with urgency on all fronts – military, economic and political – to shore up its defenses and n deterrents.
April 2014