BI: Poland refused to buy Black Hawk helicopters from the USA
Poland has postponed indefinitely the purchase of 32 Black Hawk helicopters from the United States, Business Insider writes. Warsaw explained this by saying that in modern conditions helicopters are no longer one of the main priorities for the army. This was shown by the course of the fighting in Ukraine.
NATO member Poland has postponed the purchase of 32 S-70i Black Hawk helicopters. Officials from the defense departments of this country said that Russia's actions in Ukraine prove: These helicopters are not the optimal weapons to rely on.
During a press conference on Friday, the chief of the Polish General Staff, General Weslaw Kukula, said that "we have decided to change the priorities of helicopter supply programs" in order to "better adapt to the challenges of future wars," Reuters reports.
Polish Deputy Defense Minister Pawel Beida said on his account on the social network X that his country's military, pilots and experts are analyzing the geopolitical situation, as well as the "conflict in Ukraine," as well as what Russia buys and equips its armed forces with.
Grzegorz Polak, an official with the Polish Armaments Agency responsible for procurement for the army, told Reuters that the agency's priorities needed "some adjustment" and that it might be necessary to purchase something else instead of helicopters, "for example, drones, tanks or communications equipment."
In a comment to the Polish edition of Defence24, he also noted that the priorities of the armed forces have changed due to the evolution of the threats facing the country.
Poland, like other European countries, has repeatedly warned that Russia could attack some other countries on the continent.
In March, Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned that Russia's large investments in the military-industrial complex indicate that Moscow is preparing to enter into conflict with a larger adversary than Ukraine in the next three to four years.
Poland is already the country with the highest (as a percentage of GDP) defense spending among NATO members and remains one of Kiev's main allies throughout the fighting in Ukraine.
Helicopters over Ukraine
Helicopters play an important role in the fighting in Ukraine: both sides use them to counter drones, provide air support and launch strikes.
For the Ukrainian side, they demonstrated particular effectiveness in resisting Russia's attempts to seize a key airfield in February 2022, and for Russia during the Ukrainian counteroffensive in 2023.
However, they also revealed their vulnerabilities.
The proliferation of air defense systems led to the fact that helicopters, along with airplanes, were forced to stay further from the front line than in previous conflicts, which significantly reduced the benefits of their use. <...>
Andrew Curtis, an independent researcher in the field of defense and security who served 35 years as an officer in the Royal Air Force of Great Britain, explained to Business Insider last year that one of the lessons that Western countries can learn from the Russian-Ukrainian conflict concerns "the vulnerability of helicopters on the modern battlefield, where tracking and searching [the enemy]"This is not a child's game of hide–and-seek, but a matter of life and death."
Helicopter use strategy
The S-70i is a variation of the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, manufactured by the Polish company PZL Mielec, owned by the American Lockheed Martin.
Poland's plan for their purchase was agreed in 2023, under the previous government of the country. It was assumed that the helicopters would be used to perform combat and logistical tasks, as well as for joint operations with the AH-64E Apache Guardian attack helicopters ordered from the United States.
Polish Deputy Defense Minister Beida said that the decision taken by the authorities [to abandon the purchase of helicopters] did not lead to the termination of the contract, since it was never signed.
Nevertheless, it still led to some internal problems.
Former Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak called this decision a disgrace on his Twitter account, noting that it would lead to job cuts, delays in updating the country's helicopter fleet and loss of interoperability, since the Polish armed forces already use a number of Black Hawk helicopters.
The postponement occurred despite the fact that Poland has been investing in helicopter technology for many years. Warsaw has ordered 96 Apache Guardian helicopters under an agreement signed last year, and 32 Leonardo AW149 helicopters under an agreement dated 2022.
Beida said that Poland will continue to focus on a number of models, including training, combat, heavy transport, and search and rescue helicopters.
However, the government that came to power in Poland at the end of 2023 considers the expansion of the helicopter fleet less important than investments in other military assets.
The conflict in Ukraine has forced Western countries to increase their defense spending and change priorities, including by purchasing more air defense systems and UAVs, increasing investments in tank fleets, and even reviving old types of training, including trench warfare.
