Territorial Defence Forces
Polish MoD: Bell Participates in the Helicopter Tender
fot. mil.ru
Antoni Macierewicz, Polish Minister of Defence, announced that the Polish MoD is willing to sign a relevant contract related to procurement of the Wisła air/missile defence systems by the end of this year. The official assured that the Army’s budget is going to be used in full, during the current fiscal year. As it was disclosed by Macierewicz, when it comes to the restarted helicopter procurement procedure, the companies which submitted their proposals include PZL Świdnik, PZL Mielec, Airbus Helicopters and Bell Helicopter company as well.
Antoni Macierewicz, Polish Minister of Defence, announced, during a conference summarizing one year of his work at the post of the Head of the MoD, that the Ministry is willing to sign the contract related to procurement of the Wisła air/missile defence systems by the end of this year. Back in September, the Americans have received the Letter of Request pertaining to acquisition of eight Patriot batteries, along with the IBCS air defence management module, within the framework of the Wisła programme. Within the tender, an offer submitted by MEADS is also taken into consideration, a relevant request to obtain more details within that scope has also been sent to the said manufacturer.
According to the head of the Ministry of Defence, the most important orders have also been placed with the Polish facilities. The new helicopter procurement procedure involves, besides PZL Świdnik and PZL Mielec, also the Airbus Helicopters and Bell companies. Following the offset negotiation regarding the acquisition of 50 Caracal helicopters selected by the former leadership of the Polish Ministry of Defence ending up in a fiasco, the current MoD leadership is willing to acquire a certain number of helicopters within the framework of so called urgent operational requirement, for the special forces first, with the Navy to follow.
As Macierewicz stated, the aforesaid tender is primarily addressed to the Polish facilities from Mielec and Świdnik, however, the remaining two potential contractors, namely Airbus Helicopters and Bell companies, are said to have a chance to take part in the procedure on equal terms. Nonetheless, the Polish official expressed his hope to acquire the rotorcraft from the facilities based within the territory of Poland.
Bell Helicopters offers the UH-1Y Venom helicopter, as an initial proposal, in case of which 85% of the components are shared with the AH-1Z Viper gunship, which is to be proposed by the US-based manufacturer within the Kruk attack helicopter programme.