WARSAW, Poland — The Polish Ministry of Defense has launched negotiations on its planned acquisition of new surveillance and maritime patrol aircraft, the ministry's Armament Inspectorate (IU) said in a statement.
Under the plan, the ministry is to purchase three surveillance aircraft by 2023, and three maritime patrol aircraft in the years 2023 to 2030. These will be acquired under the Plomykowka (Barn owl) and Rybitwa (Tern) programs, respectively.
As part of the latter procurement, the ministry is planning to enhance its maritime surveillance, anti-submarine and anti-vessel capabilities, reports local news site Dziennikzbrojny.pl.
Bidders interested in participating in the forthcoming tender are to submit their applications by May 20. The estimated worth of the two programs was not released by the Polish ministry.
Meanwhile, it is unclear whether the country's current government will continue the previous Cabinet's plan to allocate additional funds with the aim to overhaul and modernize the Polish Navy. Under the plan, by 2030, Poland was to spend some 900 million zloty (US $233 million) per year on purchasing vessels and armament for the service which, according to local analysts, is the most underfunded branch of the Polish Armed Forces.
The Polish Navy is manned by some 6,924, which represents close to 7 percent of the Polish military, according to figures from the Defense Ministry.
Poland aims to spend some 35.9 billion zloty on its armed forces in 2016, of which about 9.69 billion zloty is to be allocated to the ministry's military modernization program.
Jaroslaw Adamowski is the Poland correspondent for Defense News.
