June 12, 2019
32 State of the Art F-35A Stealth Fighters Could Soon Be On Russia's Border
Poland wants the F-35 bad.
by Mark Episkopos
The Polish government announced late last month that they intend to modernize the bulk of their aging Soviet-era air force with 32 F-35 fighters, purchased in two batches over the coming decade. “Today we sent a request for quotation (LOR) to our American partners regarding the purchase of 32 F-35A aircraft along with a logistics and training package," announced Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak. Blaszczak added that "this is a crucial decision that will raise our Air Force to a higher level. The first squadron of F-35 aircraft will be purchased by 2026, the second squadron after 2026.â€
F-35 procurement is a competitive process that ranks program partners according to “levels,†from 1 to 3, corresponding to their financial stake in the fifth-generation fighter’s development. Poland, along with Romania, Switzerland, Spain, and others, are not F-35 program partners and therefore occupies the lowest procurement priority. But as previously described by The National Interest, Poland seeks to leverage bilateral ties with the US to skip the competitive process altogether.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/32-state-art-f-35a-stealth-fighters-could-soon-be-russias-border-62237
