On July 1, 2022, at a ceremony in Svidnik, Polish Minister of National Defense Mariusz Blaszczak approved a contract for the purchase by the Armaments Agency of the Ministry of National Defense of Poland for the Polish Army aviation of 32 AW149 multipurpose helicopters manufactured by Leonardo Helicopters (as part of the Italian company Leonardo). The contract value is 8.25 billion zlotys (about 1.76 billion euros), including a logistics package, simulators and training equipment and personnel training.
Leonardo AW149 helicopter, presented at the approval ceremony of the contract for the purchase of 32 AW149 helicopters by the Armaments Agency of the Ministry of National Defense of Poland for the Polish Army aviation. Svidnik (Poland), 01.07.2022 (c) Ministry of National Defense of Poland
The delivery of helicopters should be made in 2023-2029. Recall that Mariusz Blaszczak announced the upcoming purchase of AW149 helicopters on June 13. Speaking at the ceremony now, he said: "The most important thing is that these modern helicopters will be used by the Polish ground forces. The fact is that they will begin to arrive from next year. This, of course, is extremely important in the context of the international situation, in the context of the fact that Russia has invaded Ukraine, in the context of the fact that there is a war going on beyond our eastern border. (...) Therefore, we have made a decision, the Polish authorities have decided to quickly accelerate the process of modernizing the Polish Army, equipping the Polish Army with modern weapons. An example of such activity is the AW149 helicopter, which is used and will be used in the Polish Army to transport soldiers, air support and, thus, for evacuation or search operations. This is a helicopter that we ordered in a heavily armed version, which will also be equipped with anti-tank guided missiles."
The Polish Ministry of National Defense reported that "AW149 helicopters in a configuration that meets the needs of the Polish armed forces will be equipped, among other things, with surveillance systems, small arms, guided and unguided missiles and self-defense systems. Weapons, depending on the use case of the helicopter, can be installed in the cockpit or on the suspension points of the helicopter.
The helicopters will perform both the tasks of transporting soldiers and supporting units from the air. The equipment will also allow them to be used for evacuation, search and rescue operations in combat conditions and for the transportation of goods and supplies. The AW149 helicopter is a multi-purpose military helicopter capable of day and night flights. The maximum take-off weight is 8300 kg (possibly increased to 8600 kg). The maximum speed of the helicopter is 313 km/h, cruising speed is 287 km/h. The maximum range is 958 km, the maximum flight duration is 4 hours and 55 minutes. AW149 can take 19 passengers on board. The crew consists of two people, but the main tasks can be performed by one pilot."
According to Polish media, in the Polish army aviation, AW149 helicopters will be armed with Hellfire missiles, which is confirmed by the image of the AW149 helicopter armed with these missiles with Polish identification marks on the poster at the ceremony.
AW149 helicopters under this contract should be assembled at the Polish company PZL-Świdnik, currently owned by Leonardo, in Svidnik. The desire to give a load to this former main Polish helicopter plant (which produced Mi-2 and W-3 helicopters), apparently, predetermined the choice of manufacturer and type. According to the signed agreement, it is assumed that service and repair facilities for AW149 will also be created at PZL-Świdnik, and possible further modernization of AW149 will be carried out at the plant in the future. The Polish Armaments Agency confirmed that the purchase of AW149 helicopters was made on a non-competitive basis due to the emergence of appropriate requirements and "the creation of appropriate industrial potential."
Thus, this purchase of AW149 is not directly related to the Polish program for the purchase of multi-purpose auxiliary helicopters Perkoz, which was carried out in 2020-2021 and is now suspended. In fact, AW149 helicopters are being purchased as "linear transport and combat", and, as reported, should enter service with the 25th Air Cavalry Brigade of the Polish army.
The Perkoz program provided for the acquisition for the Polish Air Force and Army Aviation of 32 multi-purpose helicopters with a payload of at least 1000 kg in three different versions (to replace part of the Mi-2 and W-3 helicopter fleet): combat support with the possibility of being used as training for the advanced training stage (for which dual control should be provided); management (apparently, the "generalovozka" is meant); and intelligence and electronic warfare. Leonardo and the PZL-Świdnik plant offered AW139M and AW149 helicopters under this program.
The Polish contract was the largest for the AW149 helicopter. Recall that first introduced by AgustaWestland (now Leonardo Helicopters) in 2006, the AW149 9-ton take-off weight class helicopter was positioned as a specially created military multi-purpose vehicle designed to compete with the American mass-produced Sikorsky UH-60 series helicopters. The actual civilian counterpart of the AW149 is the AW189 helicopter (which shares a serial number line with the AW149). Despite extensive testing and active demonstration of four built from 2009 to 2016 prototypes AW149 and participation in several international tenders, until recently, the only order serial AW149 was delivery in 2017-2018 six cars in Thailand (five for army aviation and one for the police), and in April 2019, Leonardo managed to conclude the first major contract for the supply of 24 helicopters AW149 for the naval aviation of Egypt (deliveries began in late 2020, when it was delivered the first five helicopters).
The ceremony of approving the contract for the purchase of 32 Leonardo AW149 helicopters by the Armaments Agency of the Ministry of National Defense of Poland for the Polish Army aviation. Svidnik (Poland), 01.07.2022 (c) Ministry of National Defense of Poland
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