AW101 is ideal for the needs of the Polish Army.

Krzysztof Krystowski, Vice President Leonardo Helicopters

Jerzy Gruszczynski talks with Krzysztof Krystowski, Vice President of Leonardo Helicopters, about the technological advantage of the AW101 helicopter and news related to the industrial offer of Leonardo and WSK “PZL-Świdnik” SA in the production of helicopters for the Polish Armed Forces.

What does WSK “PZL-Świdnik” SA currently produce?

Due to the fact that our company is fulfilling large existing and new orders, the plants in Svidnik have a lot of work to do. Undoubtedly, this is also a waiting period, will we produce AW101 in Poland or not? This will not interfere with our normal production cycle, since we already produce some elements for the AW101 in Svidnik. But our dream is to produce the whole helicopter. However, this depends on the decision of the Ministry of National Defense.

How many AW101 series need to be ordered to make production in Svidnik profitable?

Today, no company is in such a comfortable position as Airbus Helicopters in the previous tender, as it was supposed to buy 70 helicopters, and when it turned out to be too expensive, the order was reduced to 50. Currently, if we win even two tenders, we are talking about about 16 helicopters. It is undeniable that from a business point of view, such a quantity does not justify the transfer of production. But if it were 16 helicopters, plus some suggestion by our company to use this production line in the future for global customers of the Leonardo Group… we would probably decide. In the case of a smaller number, it is generally difficult to discuss this. Every engineer knows that the cost of starting production pays off in time disproportionately to the number of helicopters produced. Thus, the more helicopters produced on a given line, the lower its cost per each helicopter produced.

And what does the modernization of the helicopters of the Polish armed forces look like by WSK “PZL-Świdnik” SA?

Modernization of helicopters is, as you well know, a de facto reconstruction of an existing helicopter into a new version. There are changes in the composition of the power plant and equipment, very serious interference, which makes this task more difficult than mass production of a helicopter, in which nothing will surprise us. The predictability of the production process is much higher than with modernization. In the case of modernization, we are dealing with machines even more than 20 years old, fraught with many "surprises". They are discovered only after the helicopter is dismantled at the factory. Therefore, it is difficult, despite sincere intentions, to bring the upgraded helicopter to a state corresponding to the new machine. This is the main reason for all the delays - we test each modernized helicopter for a long time in flight. Anacondas, for example, have been around for a long time, some even a year. On the other hand, it took time for flight tests and checking whether the customer is satisfied with, for example, the level of vibrations in the air. The adaptation process takes a lot of time, but we must understand that these are not new helicopters. And it's hard to expect them to behave like new.

Referring to the letter of intent signed by WSK “PZL-Świdnik” SA with Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa SA, what has happened since then in your cooperation?

We are cooperating more and more closely with PPP, conducting more and more negotiations or even concrete work. We have an advantage over potential PGZ partners in that we are a helicopter company that has been present in Poland for decades, an original equipment manufacturer and integrator (OEM). Therefore, many Polish companies, including PGZ, have been cooperating with Świdnik for years. Our group of Polish suppliers includes almost 1000 companies, of which about 300 are directly involved in the production of helicopters as sub-suppliers. Thus, negotiations for us and for PGZ are much easier than for any other organization that does not exist in Poland or exists, but has recently been involved in helicopters, and its network is naturally many times smaller. Thus, we can talk with PGZ and the Group companies about participation in the production process, which is an absolutely unique feature of Svidnik. We can talk to them as suppliers of weapons and combat systems (for example, the ITWL IT system for the W-3PL Głuszec helicopter). We are also talking about service - here our natural advantage is that we provided almost 70 percent of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland. helicopters. Therefore, we can talk not only about the service of future helicopters, which will be delivered in a few years, and the first helicopters will be put into service, possibly in the next 8-10 years, but also about the participation of PGZ in servicing machines that such work is required today. It is difficult to imagine a better industrial partner for PGZ than PZL-Świdnik.