F-35 for Poland

Thanks to the LoA agreement, initialed by the Polish side on January 31, 2020, in 2030 the Polish Air Force will have five squadrons equipped with multi-role combat aircraft manufactured by the American corporation Lockheed Martin.

On January 31, the official "signing" of an intergovernmental agreement on the purchase by Poland of 32 Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II multipurpose combat aircraft took place at the Military Aviation Academy in Deblin, which was announced for a while by the Minister of National Defense Mariusz Blaszczak. The event was embellished by the presence of, among others, President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Minister of Defense Mariusz Blaszczak and Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces General Raimund Andrzejczak. US Ambassador to Poland Georgette Mosbacher was also present.

The need to intensify the modernization and change of generations of Air Force equipment has been discussed since the signing on April 18, 2003 of an agreement defining the conditions for the purchase of 48 Lockheed Martin F-16C / D Block 52+ Jastrząb multipurpose aircraft. combat aircraft. Due to the lack of a concept for the purchase of a specific type of aircraft and a method for obtaining it, as well as financial factors developed and confirmed by political bodies, the decision to purchase the next batch of Western-made aircraft was postponed. Maintaining the combat potential of aviation was solved by extending the service life of the Su-22 and MiG-29 aircraft. It was taken over by the national defense industry - the Air Force Institute of Technology in Warsaw and Wojskowe Zakłady Lotnicze nr 2 SA in Bydgoszcz. In recent years, realizing that the service life of Soviet-made combat vehicles is inevitably coming to an end, analyzes have been resumed on the purchase of new multi-role combat aircraft, clearly leaning towards the 5th generation F-35 vehicles. However, most likely, the F-35 would have been purchased a few years later, if not for the "black series" of accidents involving the MiG-29, initiated by a fire at Malbork Airport on June 11, 2016. As a result of these events, four vehicles were destroyed or seriously damaged, and the pilot of one of them died on July 6, 2018 near Paslenok.

On November 23, 2017, the Armaments Inspectorate of the Ministry of National Defense (ID) published announcements about the start of market analysis in the projects “Improving the possibility of implementing tasks in the framework of offensive and defensive combat against the enemy’s air potential and tasks were carried out to support ground, sea and special operations – Multipurpose Combat Aircraft." and “Airborne Electronic Jamming Capability”. Although they did not use the code name Harpia, which appeared earlier in the context of the procurement procedure for a new multi-purpose aircraft, it was clear to everyone that the PS announcements were related to this program. Interested manufacturers had until December 18, 2017 to submit their applications. As a result, Saab Defense and Security, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Boeing Company, Leonardo SpA and Fights On Logistics Sp. z oo In addition to the latter company, other companies are well-known manufacturers of multirole fighters, mainly 4,5 generation models. Only Lockheed Martin could offer the 5th generation F-35 Lightning II. It is symptomatic that the French company Dassault Aviation, manufacturer of Rafale fighters, was absent from this group. One of the reasons for this absenteeism is the cooling of military-technical cooperation between Warsaw and Paris, caused, in particular, by the cancellation by the Ministry of National Defense in 2016 of the purchase of Airbus H225M Caracal multi-purpose helicopters. Or simply Dassault Aviation rightly assessed that a possible tender would be just a facade procedure.

The presence of the most important Polish politicians in Deblin proved the importance of the January 31st ceremony and the importance of purchasing the F-35A for the Air Force. In the photo, together with Georgette Mosbacher and Mariusz Blaszczak, President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

The Plan for the Technical Modernization of the Polish Armed Forces for the years 28-2019 (PMT 2017-2026), presented on February 2017, 2026, lists the acquisition of 32 multi-purpose combat aircraft, the so-called. 5th generation, which will be supported by the currently operated F-16C / D Jastrząb. The new project should: be able to work in an environment saturated with air defense measures, be fully compatible with allied aircraft and be able to transmit received data in real time. Such records clearly indicated that the F-35A, promoted as the only 5th generation vehicle currently available in the West, could only be purchased through the US federal foreign military sales process. These assumptions were confirmed on March 12 by President Duda, who, in a radio interview, announced the start of negotiations with the American side regarding the purchase of F-35 vehicles. It is interesting that immediately after the MiG-29 crash on March 4, 2019, both the president and the National Security Service announced the start of the analysis of the purchase of the Harpies, just as in the case of the Hawks - a special act establishing funding for the program outside the budget of the Ministry of Education and Science. Ultimately, the idea was not accepted, and only the Ministry of Defense was to make the purchase. Matters quieted down in the following days of March, only to heat up the political scene again on 4 April. That day, during the debate in the US Congress, wad. Matthias W. "Mat" Winter, head of the F-35 program office (called the Joint Program Office, JPO) at the US Department of Defense, announced that the federal administration is considering approving the sale of the design to four more European countries: Spain, Greece, Romania and… Poland. Commenting on this information, Minister Blaszczak added that the financial and legal framework for the purchase of "at least 32 5th generation aircraft" is being prepared. The Polish side has made efforts to minimize the procurement authorization procedures, as well as to apply the accelerated path of negotiations. In the weeks that followed, temperatures around the F-35 "dropped" again, flaring up again in May. Two days seem to be key - May 16 and 28. On May 16, a debate took place in the Parliamentary National Defense Committee, during which Wojciech Skurkiewicz, State Secretary of the Ministry of National Defense, informed the deputies about the actual choice of the 5th generation aircraft (ie F-35A). for two Air Force squadrons. The purchase of equipment for the first is included in the 2017-2026 PMT, and for the second - in the next planning period. By recognizing the procurement as an urgent operational need, an out-of-competition procedure could be applied.

In turn, on May 28, Minister Blaszczak announced that the Department of National Defense had sent a formal Letter of Request (LoR) to the United States regarding consent to the sale of 32 F-35As and its conditions. The information provided by the minister shows that LoR, in addition to purchasing the aircraft themselves, includes a logistics and training package, that is, a standard set in the case of the FMS procedure. Submitting the LoR became an official procedure on the US side, which resulted in the publication of an export application by the Defense and Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) on September 11, 2019. We have learned that Poland is interested in purchasing 32 F-35As with a single spare Pratt Whitney F135 engine. In addition, standard logistics and training support are included in the package. The Americans set the maximum price for this package at $6,5 billion.

Meanwhile, on October 10, 2019, the Plan for the Technical Modernization of the Polish Armed Forces for 2021-2035 was approved, which, due to its duration, already provided for the purchase of 5th generation multipurpose vehicles for two squadrons.

As we learned a few days before the ceremony in Deblin, during which the Polish side initialed the Letter of Acceptance (LoA) agreement, previously signed by representatives of the US administration, in the end, the price of the package during the negotiations was reduced to 4,6, 17 billion US dollars, i.e. about 572 billion 35 million zł. One F-87,3A is expected to cost about $2,8 million. It should be emphasized that this is the so-called flyaway cost, i.e. marginal costs incurred by the manufacturer when supplying a glider with an engine, which does not mean that the customer receives the aircraft ready for operation, and even more so for combat. Poland will pay $61 billion for the aircraft and their engines, which is approximately 35% of the total contract value. The cost of training flight and technical personnel was estimated at $XNUMX million.

The price reduction was achieved, among other things, due to the refusal to reimburse all or part of the acquisition costs through offset. According to the Ministry of Defense, only the refusal to offset saved about $ 1,1 billion. However, it can be expected that Lockheed Martin and its industrial partners will develop cooperation with the Polish defense and aviation industry, which was proposed when signing a cooperation agreement between Lockheed Martin Corp. and Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa SA. on the expansion of the capabilities of Wojskowe Zakłady Lotnicze No. 2 SA in Bydgoszcz in the field of maintenance of C-130 Hercules transport aircraft and F-16 multi-role fighters.

The amount of 4,6 billion US dollars is the net price, when the purchased equipment goes beyond the borders of Poland, it will have to pay VAT. According to the calculations of the Ministry of National Defense, the final gross amount will increase by about PLN 3 billion, to a level of about PLN 20,7 billion (at the exchange rate of the US dollar at the date of signing the contract). All payments under the LoA agreement must be made in 2020-2030.

In the information provided to the public by the Ministry of Defense, it is known that the Polish F-35A will exit future production and will be the standard version of the Block 4 version, which is still under development. Poland will also be the second - after Norway - user of the F-35 vehicles, which will be equipped with hull brake chute holders that shorten the rollout (by default, the F-35A does not have them). In accordance with the provisions of the contract, during its validity period, all modifications (mainly software) implemented on a permanent basis in subsequent production series will be implemented on previously delivered machines.

The first F-35A for the Air Force should be delivered in 2024 and at the beginning of their service, as well as part of the aircraft from the batch scheduled for delivery in 2025 (six in total) will be placed in the United States for pilot training and ground support - according to Under the agreement, the Americans will train 24 pilots (including several up to the level of instructors) and 90 technicians. They will also be used for development work. This deadline means that the Americans will not hand over to Poland six Block 3F versions already manufactured for Turkey, which need to be rebuilt to the Block 4 target standard, which are currently mothballed and awaiting their fate. At the end of last year, the media speculated about their future, indicating that these aircraft could go to Poland or the Netherlands (which should increase their current order to 37 units).