Poland Mulls Drone Offers From General Atomics, Elbit

WARSAW, Poland — The Polish Ministry of Defence is considering offers by General Atomics and Elbit Systems for its program to acquire new medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) drones for the country's armed forces.

"Based on the talks with the authorities of countries which possess relevant MALE unmanned aerial vehicles, we are currently considering the following offered systems: the MQ-9 Reaper, the MQ-1C Gray Eagle and the Hermes 900," Bartlomiej Misiewicz, the spokesman of Ministry of Defense, told local news site Defence24.pl.

Misiewicz said that at this stage of the program, the ministry would not disclose any information regarding the weapons which could be provided with the combat UAVs to the Polish Armed Forces.

Last year, senior Polish ministry officials announced that under Poland's second drone program — estimated to be worth at least "several billion zloty" (1 zloty is US $0.27) — the country's military will purchase larger combat UAVs either from the US or Israel.

The MALE drone procurement will be carried out under the military's Zefir program. Under the plan, the drones are to be delivered to Poland by 2019. In total, the Polish military is aiming to acquire some 350 UAVs.

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