Three Helicopter Offers for the Polish Army

Polish Ministry of Defence announced that according to the schedule of the procedure of procuring the helicopters for the Navy and for the Special Operations component, managed by the Armament Inspectorate, offers have been submitted by the contractors invited to take part in the procurement process on 27th March.

The release issued by the Polish Ministry of Defence did not specify as to which contractors have placed the offers within the framework of the specific tasks (special operations and/or naval helicopters), nonetheless the information suggests that offers have been submitted by all of the invited entities. Back in February relevant invitations have been received by three entities – PZL Mielec and Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation (Lockheed Martin) consortium, WSK PZL Świdnik (Leonardo Group) and Heli Invest/Airbus Helicopters Consortium. 27th March was the extended deadline, the original one was defined as 13th March.

The Armament Inspectorate has extended the final deadline for one of the entities, and in order to prepare answers to the submitted questions. Polish Ministry of Defence assures that prolonged submission deadline had no impact on procurement term concerning the equipment for the Polish Armed Forces, especially in case of the helicopters that are destined to be used in order to train the crews.

The members of the committees dealing with the procedure have already initiated the analysis of the offers, several thousand pages each. The public opinion will be informed about the results of the fully confidential proceedings immediately after the process is completed.

Polish Armed Forces are to acquire eight helicopters for the CSAR operations, which are to be utilized by the Special Operations component, along with eight ASW platforms offering an ability to carry out maritime SAR sorties, for the Polish Navy. Within the initial stage of the procedure, an emphasis is going to be placed on acquisition of the helicopters for the Special Forces.

In case of the maritime helicopters, an option is permitted to acquire them in two lots, four examples per lot. Most probably this is also the source of the information published by the RMF FM radio station which, referring to unofficial sources, claimed that the Polish Ministry of Defence is only willing to acquire 12 new helicopters, within the current procurement procedure, as so far a plan exists only to order four maritime platforms with another four to be acquired in the future. The Ministry did not make a direct reference to the information above, however according to the statements made earlier, the MoD has suggested that the maritime platforms may be procured in two stages, with four helicopters acquired at each stage.