Helicopter tender - another approach
One of the Mi-17s of the 7th Special Operations Squadron, delivered at the turn of 2010 and 2011.
According to statements made by the leadership of the Ministry of National Defense, although several weeks later in connection with previously published information, on February 20 of this year. The Armaments Inspectorate announced the start of two procurement procedures for new helicopters for the Polish Armed Forces. Thus, in the coming months, we should get acquainted with the suppliers of rotorcraft for the 7th Special Operations Squadron, as well as the Naval Aviation Brigade.
The termination last autumn, without agreement, of the final negotiations between the Ministry of Development and representatives of Airbus Helicopters set the program for the modernization of the helicopter fleet of the Polish Armed Forces into a starting point. And the question of which machine will replace the Mi-14 helicopters and the most exhausted Mi-8 again remained unanswered. Almost immediately after the adoption of this decision, Minister Antoniy Macierewicz and Deputy Minister Bartosz Kownatsky began to make statements that a new procedure would soon be launched, and the leadership of the Ministry of Defense continued to consider the change of generations of the helicopter fleet as one of their tasks. priorities.
The new procedure was launched shortly after the completion of the first procedure. This time as part of an urgent operational need (see WiT 11/2016). However, as it turned out, the preparation of the relevant documents was delayed, incl. due to the need for the offset commission to develop appropriate procedures and prepare the circulation of documents, including secret ones, between the parties, both in the interstate regime (with the US administration) and in commercial negotiations with suppliers. Legal analysis has shown, in particular, that it is not possible to deliver two "educational" vehicles by the end of last year or at the turn of January and February of this year, - Antony Matserevich said.
According to the published information, the Armaments Inspectorate sent invitations to participate in the procedure to three entities: the consortium Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. (the company is currently owned by Lockheed Martin Corporation) with Polskie Zakłady Lotnicze Sp. z oo, Wytwórnia Urządztu Komunikacyjnego PZL-Świdnik SA (owned by the Leonardo concern), as well as a consortium of Airbus Helicopters and Heli Invest Sp. z oo SKA Services Under the first procedure, eight helicopters in combat search and rescue version CSAR in a special version (CSAR SOF for Special Forces units) are supplied, and in the second - four or eight in anti-tank version. a submarine variant, but additionally equipped with a medical station, allowing CSAR missions to be carried out. This position on the number of offshore helicopters follows, as they say in an official statement, from the time factor - therefore, negotiations on offshore helicopters will be conducted after an analysis of possible delivery schedules proposed by the tender participants. The Ministry admits the possibility of obtaining them in two batches of four cars each. Of course, this may involve other problems, even of a financial or technical nature, but we will leave the answer to this question for the future. In both procedures, their participants must submit their applications by March 13 of the current year. As the course of the tender for the purchase of "small" aircraft for VIP transportation has shown, a similar procedure can be carried out in Poland almost at an accelerated pace. Therefore, the process of analyzing complex documents should not be too lengthy. Especially in the presence of a large amount of documentation "inherited" from the previous helicopter program, and adequate political support for the activities of the Arms Inspectorate. According to the media department of the Operational Center of the Ministry of National Defense, the procedure is carried out in the manner prescribed for orders of paramount importance for national security. Therefore, negotiations must be conducted in complete confidentiality. This means that no details can be released to the public until they are completed. For this reason, the amount of information available about the tender from the Ministry of National Defense is currently very modest. For obvious reasons, bidders in this case try to be careful.
