Lightning II
Prophetic aircraft staging at the ILA 2018 showroom in Berlin, MiG-29UB in the foreground, followed by an F-35A.
Hardly anyone expected that May of this year would heat up discussions about the future of the Polish Air Force almost to the boiling point. This was due to the statements of the leading politicians of the Ministry of Defense, who, as a result of another MiG-29 accident on March 4 this year, decided to speed up the process of replacing the currently operated Soviet-made aircraft.
A black series of accidents involving the MiG-29 in the Air Force began on December 18, 2017, when copy No. 67 crashed near Kalushin. On July 6, 2018, car No. 4103 crashed near Paslenok, in which the remote. March 4 this year. the list was supplemented by MiG No. 40, in this case the pilot survived. Considering that for 28 years of operation of this type of aircraft there has never been a similar series, the attention of politicians was riveted to the problem of the technical condition of military aviation, especially Soviet-made aircraft that are deprived of a manufacturer's certificate. support. At the same time, in November 2017, the Armaments Inspectorate began the stage of market analysis in terms of acquiring a multi-purpose combat aircraft and the possibility of conducting radio-electronic interference from the air - entities interested in participating managed to submit documentation before December 18. , 2017. Ultimately involved are Saab AB, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Leonardo SpA and Fights-on-Logistics. Apart from the last one, the rest are well-known manufacturers of multi-role combat aircraft, mainly with the so-called generation 4,5. The only representative of the 5th generation on the market is the F-35 Lightning II manufactured by Lockheed Martin Corporation. What could be puzzling is the absence of the French Dassault Aviation, the manufacturer of Rafale, in the group of companies.
The Technical Modernization Plan, approved in February 2019, lists the procurement of 32 5th generation multirole combat aircraft as a top priority, to be supported by the currently operational F-16C/D Jastrząb – the latter approaching the F-16V standard upgrade (this Greece has already gone the way, and Morocco is planning too). The new structure, which must be able to operate freely in an air defense-intensive environment, must be fully compatible with allies and be able to transmit data in real time. Such records clearly identified the F-35A Lightning II, which could be purchased through the federal FMS process.
The above assumptions were confirmed on March 12 by the President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda, who, in a radio interview, announced the start of negotiations with the American side regarding the purchase of vehicles of this type. Interestingly, shortly after the March accident of the MiG-a-29, the President and the National Security Council announced the start of analyzes for the implementation of the Harpia program in the same way as the F-16C / D - through the act, the financing of the program was then outside the budget of the Ministry of National Defense.
Matters subsided in the following days of March, only to heat up the political scene again on 4 April. Then, during a debate in the US Congress, Vice Adm. Matt Winter, head of the F-35 Lightning II office on behalf of the Department of Defense, revealed that the federal administration was considering approving the sale of the design to four European countries. The list includes: Spain, Greece, Romania and Poland. In the case of the latter, the Letter of Inquiry, which is an official request for price and availability of the selected equipment, was sent from Warsaw on 28 March this year. Minister of National Defense Mariusz Blaszczak commented on the above information even more interesting: he announced the preparation of financial and legal grounds for the purchase of at least 32 5th generation aircraft. The Polish side strives for the maximum reduction of procurement authorization procedures, as well as for a quick negotiation path. Current estimates indicate that a possible LoA deal with the US government, signed this year, could allow aircraft deliveries to begin around 2024. Such a fast pace could allow Poland to take over Turkish manufacturing positions.
