Armed Forces
Poland will purchase VIP transport aircraft in 2015
Aleksiej Miller- fot. Gazprom.ru
Next year Ministry of Defence will try, yet another time, to procure small VIP transport aeroplanes. Council of Ministers has adopted a plan aiming at improving the national security yesterday, which includes the acceptance for procedure of procuring two VIP aircraft – as it was stated by Tomasz Siemoniak, Polish Minister of Defence.
As it has been clarified by the Polish Minister of Defence, procurement of two aircraft that would facilitate transport of 12-14 passengers is planned. The airplanes are to be capable of completing cross-Atlantic flights, without any stopovers, carrying 8 passengers and their luggage on board. It shall be assumed that the remaining requirements will be similar to those, which were considered during the tender regarding the air charter services using similar aircraft. That tender has been unsuccessfully closed back in April this year.
The above means that the minimum standard range would be equal to 5 000 km, with a cruising speed of at least 800 kph. The aircraft were also to be equipped with at least a pair of turbofan engines, satellite connectivity for the passengers, which would be operative at any stage of flight and during the stopovers, along with a strongbox for storing the armament and sensitive documents, a toilet and a catering section, which would make it possible to serve hot meals.
The aircraft will be a complementary asset, in addition to the Embraer 175 planes chartered from the Lot Polish Airlines. The agreement related to services provided by Lot is to be expire in 2017. Then, as it has been stated by Minister Siemoniak, further steps will probably be taken within the scope of providing a new set of proper VIP transport measures.
One of the key differences, in comparison with the preceding tenders, is the fact that MoD plans to buy, and it does not plan to charter, two small aircraft which are to be used in order to facilitate HEAD flights. Aircraft which are to be acquired in 2015 will be maintained and flown by military personnel. Thanks to that, and thanks to the proper set of encrypted communication systems and security systems, these aircraft will be capable of fulfilling a role of a flying crisis management centre.