Polish Government Planning To Scrap Missile, Helicopter Tenders

Poland’s new government is moving to cancel two key defense tenders agreed by the previous administration.

The Law and Justice party (PiS) was highly critical of the selection of the Raytheon Patriot for Poland’s Wisla requirement for an air and missile defense system and also of Airbus Helicopters for a helicopter replacement program, announced in April by the then Civic Platform administration.

In a parliamentary committee, Poland’s new defense minister Antoni Macierewicz said earlier this week he was inclined to repeat the helicopter tender process, although reports from Poland suggest that such a move is dependent on negotiations with another government department over the offset program the work would provide.

Meanwhile the contract for the Patriot was, Macierewicz said “practically non-existent,”

“The price is much higher, the delivery could take much longer and conditions for the supplier are practically unknown,” Macierewicz said regarding the Patriot tender. “The Defense Ministry is interested in honest, fair and effective talks with our American partners.”

The two projects fired the starting gun on a $40 billion modernization of the Polish armed forces over the next decade, to remove much of the largely Soviet-produced equipment still in service and replace it with Western systems.

 Some of the tenders have been accelerated because of Russian actions in Eastern Ukraine, but the moves by PiS now look to delay that process.

PiS has been highly critical of the helicopter contract in particular, stating that the tender should have gone to a manufacturer with a larger footprint inside Poland. While Airbus has agreed to produce the H225M in country at a facility in Lodz, it is not an incumbent in Poland unlike competitors AgustaWestland and Sikorsky both of which have facilities in the country thanks to their takeovers of PZL-Swidnik and PZL-Mielec respectively.

Poland had ambitions to purchase eight Patriot batteries, and had asked for two to provide an interim capability before the end of the decade.