Polish Ministry of Defence Reveals the VIP Aircraft Tender Offers

According to the Armament Inspectorate, two offers referring to procurement of two small VIP jets have been submitted on 14th October. They come from the French Dassault Aviation company offering the Falcon 7X aircraft, and an American manufacturer, proposing the Gulfstream G550 jets. Both aircraft are capable of transporting up to 16 persons. The Armament Inspectorate assumes that the agreement is going to be signed by the end of this year, while the deliveries are expected to begin in 2017. In total, two aircraft of this type are planned to be procured. 

Dassault Aviation offers the said two airframes at a net price of PLN 453.43 million. The first jet may be delivered by 31st April 2018, while the second jet could be expected four months later. In case of the Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation, the jets would have a price tag of PLN 440.57 million. Delivery deadline for both airframes would take place on 15th August 2017.

Simultaneously, the Armament Inspectorate of the Polish Ministry of Defence received four requests for being included in the tendering procedure regarding the “medium” VIP aircraft. Companies or groups that are interested in delivering such aircraft, in case of which no less than 65 (new aircraft) or 132 (second hand airframe) passengers can board the jets, include the Czech Glomex MS s.r.o. company collaborating with Lufthansa Technik AG (Germany), Boeing, Polish Megmar Logistics & Consulting Sp. z o.o. company and Aerospace International Group s.r.o (Slovakia), along with „ASSA-POLAND” Zdzisław Kondrat (Poland). No information has been released as to the type of the aircraft offered to the Polish Air Force by the entities above.

The tendering procedure is expected to be conducted as follows: first, the commission which is dealing with the tender is to analyse and assess the submitted requests. Then, contractors whose requests meet the requirements are going to be invited to take part in the tender and submit their initial offers. It is not going to be until the next stage, when the final technical requirements for the aircraft, along with the agreement conditions, are defined. After conducting the negotiation procedure, the Ordering Party’s commission is going to invite the contractors to place their final offers. Then these offers are going to be analysed and assessed, and only after that, the contractor, whose offer will turn out to be the most beneficial, will have a right to conclude the final procurement contract, which is to happen during the first quarter of 2017. Poland is planning to acquire three medium VIP jet aircraft, out of which one airframe is going to be a second-hand jet, while two remaining jets are expected to be factory new. 

Procurement of the VIP jets is based on a resolution issued by the Council of Minister, on 30th June 2016. In total PLN 1.7 billion is allocated to that purpose, and the money is going to be placed outside the limit which defines the maximum level of defence expenditure as 2% of GDP, in line with the requirements defined by the Polish law. What is even more important, should the financial assets of the special purpose reserve remain unused during the given year, they would be allocated to the next year’s spending, which means that the funds are not going to be lost in the eyes of the Polish Ministry of Defence.