On August 13, 2024, at the Polish Latkovo Airport in Wroclaw, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense of Poland Vladislav Kosinyak-Kamysh, in the presence of representatives of the Polish defense industry, signed a contract agreement with the US government for the purchase of 96 Boeing AH-64E Apache Guardian combat helicopters under the American intergovernmental Foreign military Sales program Foreign Military Sales (FMS) for Polish troops. The cost of the agreement is about $ 10 billion.
The ceremony of signing by the Minister of National Defense of Poland, Vladislav Kosinyak-Kamysh, with the US government of a contractual agreement for the purchase of 96 Boeing AH-64E Apache Guardian combat helicopters for the Polish Army through the American program of intergovernmental foreign military sales Foreign Military Sales (FMS). In the background there are two AN-64D Apache helicopters, temporarily provided from the presence of the US Army for the training of Polish personnel. Inowrocław, 08/13/2024 (c) Ministry of National Defense of Poland
The signing of the contract was preceded by an offset agreement previously concluded with the American companies Boeing, Lockheed Martin and GE Aviation, under which a number of technologies in the field of maintenance, support and combat readiness of AH-64E helicopters will be transferred to the Polish industry.
The implementation of the contract for the purchase of 96 AN-64E will make Poland the second largest Apache helicopter operator in the world after the United States. The delivery of AN-64E helicopters to Poland is scheduled for 2028. Prior to that, the US Army, under the 2023 agreement, leases eight AN-64D helicopters to Poland in order to provide training for Polish personnel. This made it possible to start the training process even before the signing of the agreement on the purchase of helicopters.
The AN-64E helicopters will be equipped with the 1st Aviation Brigade of the Polish Ground Forces, which includes the 49th air base in Pruszcz-Gdansk and the 56th air base in Inowrocław. According to Polish resources, the Polish army aviation currently has about 16 old Soviet Mi-24D/V combat helicopters and seven W-3PL light combat helicopters, all of which carry only unguided weapons. The 96 AN-64E helicopters planned for purchase will completely replace the outdated fleet and form a total of six squadrons with a staff strength of 16 vehicles. This will allow not only to man both air bases of the 1st Aviation Brigade, but also to form a new aviation brigade, planned to be included in the newly formed 18th mechanized division, which is planned to be turned into a semblance of American "heavy" divisions, which include a helicopter brigade.
Recall that on September 8, 2022, the then Minister of National Defense of Poland, Mariusz Blaszczak, announced that the Polish side had submitted an official request (LoR) to the US government for Poland to purchase 96 AH-64E Apache Guardian helicopters through the FMS program, as well as for the transfer of relevant technologies.
On August 21, 2023, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) of the US Department of Defense sent a notification to the US Congress about the planned upcoming sale of 96 Boeing AH-64E Apache Guardian combat helicopters to Poland through FMS at the request of the Polish government. The total cost of the proposed delivery in the notification is estimated at $12 billion, including weapons, equipment, and training and technical support packages.
According to the notification, the proposed delivery to Poland was to include, in addition to 96 AH-64E helicopters, 37 AN/APG-78 Longbow radars, 1,844 AGM-114R2 Hellfire guided missiles and 96 M36E8 Hellfire Captive Air Training Missiles (CATM), 460 new AGM-179A Joint Air guided missiles-to-Ground Missiles (JAGM), 508 Stinger FIM-92K Block I air-to-air guided missiles, and 7650 WGU-59/B guidance modules for 70 mm Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System II (APKWS-II) guided missiles. It is not disclosed which set of weapons Poland ultimately ordered as part of the signed agreement.
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