On August 7, 2023, the first multi-purpose marine heavy helicopter Leonardo Helicopters AW101 Merlin, built for the Polish Navy, arrived at the airfield of the Polish helicopter-building company PZL-Świdnik (owned by the Italian company Leonardo) in Svidnik, delivered under the 2019 contract for the purchase of four vehicles by Poland. The helicopter has serial number 50288 (Polish tail number "6204", temporary British military number ZR288) and was manufactured at the British enterprise of Leonardo Helicopters division of Leonardo in Yeovil, from where it has now flown to Poland with an intermediate landing in Rotterdam. After passing the test program in Svidnik, the helicopter will become part of the 44th Naval Aviation Base in the fall of 2023 (44. Baza Lotnictwa Morskiego) The Polish Navy is in Darlovo, where the appropriate infrastructure has already been prepared. The remaining three helicopters should be delivered by the end of the year.
The first multi-purpose marine helicopter delivered to Poland Leonardo Helicopters AW101 Merlin (serial number 50288, Polish tail number "6204", temporary British military number ZR288). Svidnik (Poland), 07.08.2023 (c) Ministry of National Defense of Poland
Recall that on April 26, 2019, Polish Minister of National Defense Mariusz Blaszczak signed a contract at the PZL-Świdnik enterprise in Svidnik for the supply of four Leonardo Helicopters AW101 Merlin heavy helicopters for use as anti-submarine and search and rescue helicopters for the Polish Navy aviation. The Leonardo-owned PZL-Świdnik plant is the formal supplier of helicopters, which are actually manufactured by Leonardo at the British Leonardo Helicopters production line in Yeovil (formerly the Westland plant). The PZL-Świdnik plant manufactured part of the airframe designs for these helicopters.
The first helicopter built under this contract with serial number 50285 (Polish tail number "6201", temporary British military number ZR285) made its first flight in Yeovil on July 19, 2021, and is still used there in the development and testing program. The second helicopter (serial number 50286, Polish tail number "6202", temporary British military number ZR286), made its first flight on November 6, 2021, and the third (serial number 50287, Polish tail number "6203", temporary British military number ZR287) - on April 22, 2022. The helicopter that has now arrived in Poland with serial number 50288 (Polish tail number "6204", temporary British military number ZR288) is actually the fourth and last built under this contract, and made its first flight in Yeovil on November 22, 2022.
The contract value is 1.65 billion Polish zloty (about 380 million euros). The delivery of all four helicopters should be made by the end of 2022, but in the end it was delayed for a year due to technical reasons and the coronavirus pandemic. Helicopters are manufactured in an anti-submarine version, but with additional modules that allow them to be used as search and rescue and medical.
Also, the Polish Ministry of National Defense signed directly with Leonardo a package of offset agreements worth 395.9 million zlotys under this contract. The main of the offset agreements was the creation of a joint licensed center for maintenance and repair of AW101 helicopters with Leonardo on the basis of the Polish aircraft repair plant Wojskowe Zakłady Lotnicze Nr 1 S.A. (WZL-1) in Lodz. Leonardo also pledged to provide technical support for the operation of the purchased helicopters for 10 years through its Polish company PZL-Świdnik, and training of Polish personnel will also be organized there.
The Polish Navy planned to purchase eight promising anti-submarine and search-and-rescue shore-based helicopters to replace the old Soviet Mi-14 helicopters in naval aviation - now nominally eight Mi-14PLMK anti-submarine helicopters and two Mi-14PL/R search-and-rescue helicopters converted from Mi-14PL are in service. However, in 2018, the Polish Ministry of National Defense, for financial reasons, reduced the number of marine helicopters planned for acquisition to four, postponing the purchase of four more for an indefinite future. The AW101 helicopter was formally selected for purchase following an international tender, where, due to the constant change in the requirements of the Polish side, it turned out to be the only final candidate.
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The first multi-purpose marine helicopter delivered to Poland Leonardo Helicopters AW101 Merlin (serial number 50288, Polish tail number "6204", temporary British military number ZR288) during an intermediate landing in Rotterdam, 07.08.2023 (c) Gideon van Dijk / www.scramble.nl
The first multi-purpose marine helicopter delivered to Poland Leonardo Helicopters AW101 Merlin (serial number 50288, Polish tail number "6204", temporary British military number ZR288). Svidnik (Poland), 07.08.2023 (c) Ministry of National Defense of Poland
