The acquisition of FA-50 aircraft by Poland was expected to strengthen the air force, but in fact serious deficiencies were revealed. Although Poland acquired 12 South Korean FA-50GF machines, it turns out that these aircraft, which are intended to service combat purposes, are in practice incapable of fighting. Reason? No weapons not included in the contract.
Buying without a gun: what went wrong?
The Deputy Minister of National Defence, Cezary Tomczyk, at the session of the Sejm explained that during the negotiations on the acquisition of the FA-50 the issue of arms had been omitted, which led to an absurd situation. "The decisions on the acquisition were made very quickly, actually in a fewer days and simply did not take care of the interests of Poland and the Polish Army" – said Tomczyk.
FA-50 aircraft purchased by Poland are intended to service as school and combat machines. However, according to Tomczyk, these are “unless the world's first school-fighting aircraft, which are not militant.” The Executive Agreements concluded by the erstwhile head of the MON, Mariusz Błaszczak, did not foresee the acquisition of weapons. As a result, machines which should be ready for combat can only be trained.
Combating arms – what next?
The Armed Forces Agency and the MON are now taking action to find weapons for the FA-50, but the situation is hard due to the fact that it is no longer produced. As Tomczyk emphasized, “it is hard to buy weapons for this aircraft today, if it is not manufactured.” MON undertakes attempts to delease or buy utilized weapons in the secondary market. Only then can the training on these machines be carried out according to the assumptions, that is, in school and combat mode.
Criticism of purchasing decisions
Deputy Minister Tomczyk pointed out the unthought-out decisions of the erstwhile MON leadership, indicating that the arms negotiations should have been carried out before the acquisition of aircraft alternatively than after the fact. “This is absurd. We negociate before we buy something and not negociate erstwhile we buy it," he commented. He besides addressed straight the erstwhile head of the Defence Ministry, Mariusz Błaszczak, asking about the deficiency of work erstwhile making decisions.
NIK's gonna do a checkup?
Tomczyk announced that MON would ask the ultimate Chamber of Control (NIK) to carry out "an in-depth analysis of this contract for the decision-makers themselves". According to the Deputy Minister, it is crucial to examine why weapons were not purchased at the time erstwhile they decided to buy aircraft, and now the military is struggling with the deficiency of essential combat resources.
Effects on Polish military aviation
The deficiency of weapons for the FA-50 puts Polish air force in a hard situation. alternatively of strengthening combat capabilities, machines that were to play a key function are now only utilized for training purposes. Plans to acquisition a full of 48 aircraft, including 36 FA-50PL versions, may be delayed if the weapons problem is not resolved.
Conclusion
The acquisition of the FA-50 was to be a step towards modernization of Polish military aviation, but the deficiency of adequate weapons puts the task in a bad light. fast intervention is needed to safe adequate resources to let these machines to be utilized as originally intended. Decisions taken by erstwhile decision-makers request to be analysed in depth to avoid akin situations in the future.
Continued here:
Ridiculous FA-50 Shopping: Combat aircraft without weapons. NIK enters action
