We would like military aircraft to benefit seamlessly from civilian infrastructure for war and crisis. But besides during peace as part of the exercises – said General Dyw. Pił. Ireneusz Nowak at the gathering of the legislature Committee on National Defence. The military is seeking access to civilian infrastructure, which requires the abolition of a number of restrictions.
In late July 2024, the legislature National Defence Commission took note of an expert analysis on the anticipation of civilian and military aircraft, helicopters or drones sharing airports. At the time, it was considered that in the case of the majority of Polish airports this is impossible in the current legal state and without the full approval of all civilian institutions liable for air transport.
Today, however, parliamentarians have returned to the matter. Representatives of the Senate, the Ministry of Defence and Infrastructure, the General Staff of the Polish Army, the General Command of Types of Armed Forces, the Government strategical Reserve Agency, the Polish Air Navigation Agency, the management of civilian airports took part in the committee meeting. The discussion was chaired by General Mirosław Różański, a erstwhile General Commander of the RSZ (until 2017), and now president of the legislature Commission.
At the beginning of the meeting, politicians summed up a discussion that took place a fewer months ago. And Gen. Rozanski asked for concrete conclusions and targets to be addressed by the military and government sides.
He was the first to talk Brig-Gen Jacek Sankowski. The manager of the Ministry of Infrastructure at MON stressed that in planning the improvement of the armed forces, it is crucial for the Ministry of Defence that the military besides usage civilian aviation infrastructure, which is “necessary to keep in defence potential”. – I can inform you that we conduct widely understood analyses for reconstruction and usage in the defence strategy of civilian airports specified as Goleniów, Zegr Pomorskie, Babimost. We do not forget about existing airports, which are already utilized by the armed forces,' said Gen. Sankowski.
A typical of the MON added that the ministry is looking at each airport 1 by 1 to measure its possible usage for military purposes. any airports besides operate as civilian facilities, e.g. a port in Bydgoszcz, although as the military emphasizes, they belong to the army. “After signing the plan for the improvement of the armed forces, we will analyse the operational agreements in order to make the essential changes to this matter,” announced the manager of the Infrastructure Department in the MON.
– We would like to guarantee that military aircraft can easy usage civilian infrastructure for war and crisis. But besides during peace as part of the exercise," he said Gen. Dyw. pil. Ireneusz Nowak. – Military aviation must be prepared at peace in terms of operational planning, but besides glazed to execute an airport maneuver. This is not going to happen utilizing the airport road sections. We will gotta usage a network of civilian airports – announced the Air Force Inspector at the General Command of the RSZ.
Gen. Nowak stated that there are respective legal and financial issues on the way to this end. Among another things, there are standards and restrictions on sound generation at airports. erstwhile a military aircraft lands at a civilian airport, the sound limit at that airport is rapidly reached. As the general explained, these restrictions for the military should be lifted during the exercise or the cost of exceeding standards should be determined.
Army representatives explained to Senators that it was active in sharing “most airports that operate civil, passenger traffic due to the fact that they have adequate infrastructure”. It was besides noted that the substance does not only concern the needs of Polish air forces, but besides allied units, which will gotta usage specified facilities during the crisis. “There is no turning back from this,” said General Nowak.
Colonel Łukasz Andrzejewski-Popow, general counsel of the head of SGWP, made 2 conclusions. Firstly, it is essential to extend the catalogue of civilian aircraft, which is to find which aircraft or helicopters may land on a given facility. The second issue concerns enabling military inspectors to carry out tasks related to the movement of civilian aircraft. At any civilian airports, military controllers are already training.
The conclusions presented at the session of the National Defence Commission are based on 1 main premise. In order to let civilian and military aircraft to share airports, a legal and financial analysis of this task must be carried out first. Politicians and experts agreed that any of the essential changes could be arranged through regulations, e.g. expanding the airport catalogue. In another cases, however, the Environmental Protection Act (noise reduction) or aviation law will should be amended. Declarations have besides been made to strengthen cooperation between defence and infrastructure ministries. This is crucial, for example, in terms of planning the expansion and modernisation of aircraft facilities to be utilized by both civilian and military aircraft.
The deadline for the next gathering of the legislature Committee on National Defence in this case was not precisely set, but the president asked the military to prepare appropriate papers within a week to let further work.
