Hermes 450 Offered By PGZ and Elbit. Gryf Programme Memorandum.

The agreement assumes that PGZ is going to place the offer, acting as a leader of a consortium which would include the Elbit Systems company. According to the content of the memorandum, technology transfer from the Elbit Systems company, which is going to be received by the Polish Armament Group, is going to be realized. Wojciech Dąbrowski, President of the PGZ Company noted that PGZ is willing to ultimately manufacture its own UAV systems, based on the Hermes 450 platform.

We are signing a memorandum with the Elbit company, so that we are able to win the “Gryf” programme tender. Next we are going to realize the transfer of the technology and – ultimately – we want to manufacture our own medium range UAV systems, based on the Hermes 450 platform.

PGZ stresses the fact that should the Israeli-Polish offer be selected, the main airframe components are going to be manufactured in Poland, and the final assembly is going to be fully polonized. When it comes to the signed document, export option regarding the newly built UAV system (based on the Hermes 450 platform) is also being considered.

The memorandum has been signed by the president of the PGZ company, Wojciech Dąbrowski, member of the PGZ management board, Dariusz Sokólski and Elad Aharonson, Vice-President of Elbit Systems. Representatives of the Elbit company stressed the fact that Elbit owns full copyrights regarding the Hermes 450 system, only the export approval needs to be issued by the Israeli authorities.

According to the assumptions of the agreement, the Polish firms are going to have exclusive rights within the scope of delivering the elements which are securing the encryption of the data transferred by the communications system of the drone, as the said information may be sensitive. Poland is also going to deal with the wiring, while the UAV systems introduced into service are going to be maintained by the Polish Armed Forces.

In line with the statement made by the Vice-President of the Elbit Systems company, should a decision be made that the Hermes 900 MALE UAV systems are acquired, the created infrastructure could be used by the tactical UAV systems, medium range UAV systems and MALE-class systems at the same time.

Polish Minister of Defence, Tomasz Siemoniak, decided to acquire the tactical medium range UAV systems, procurement of which is going to be realized within the scope of the “Gryf” programme, from the Polish companies, which are classified as companies of high economic importance, significant within the scope of national security. Decision pertaining the MALE class UAV systems is going to be made once availability of the systems is assessed, after the inter-governmental negotiations are carried out.