After a series of flight demonstrations in Poland last month, the country has confirmed its choice of the Airbus Helicopters H225M Caracal as its new medium multirole helicopter. The move comes despite concerns raised by some Polish politicians that the Airbus bid does not match that of AgustaWestland or Sikorsky for local industrial participation. However, their concerns might have been eased by news that Lockheed Martin has met all its offset commitments with respect to the sale of 48 F-16C/D Block 52s to Poland in 2006 to 2008, the country’s previous largest defense acquisition.

In the flight demonstrations, the H225M showed it complies with 32 requirements stated by the Armament Inspectorate of the Polish Ministry of Defence. The contract for 50 helicopters is expected to be signed in the autumn, although politics could yet intervene, since parliamentary elections take place then. The ruling party lost the Presidential election in Poland last month.

The Polish Economics Ministry announced that the offset contract worth just over $6 billion with Lockheed Martin has been completed. Of some 140 separate agreements, the most important was one that significantly upgraded the ability of the Military Aircraft Works No 2 (Polish acronym WZL) to support and overhaul F-16s. When the offset deal was first agreed, the Polish industrial lobby criticized the lack of technology transfer. In 2009, an audit of the contract by the Supreme Chamber of Control was critical of the agreement and the Polish government for not pressing harder during the negotiations.

Meanwhile, Warsaw has begun the process of acquiring two VIP transport aircraft for delivery next year. They should have 12 to 14 seats and a range of at least 2,700 nm; they can be pre-owned. The contract will include training of air and ground crew and initial maintenance support. With these two aircraft, Poland intends to re-establish the VIP transport unit that was disbanded following the fatal crash of the Tupolev Tu-154 in 2010. Since then, the government has chartered E175s from Polish airline LOT; two days after the new requirement was announced, one of these aborted a takeoff, reportedly after failure of the airspeed indicator.