Offset deals within the framework of the US-Poland deal on the supply of AH-64E Apache attack helicopters, which bring the contract closer to being signed, have been concluded by the Polish Ministry of Defense with Boeing and General Electric, TVP Info reported on August 5.
Polish Defence Ministry Deputy Director Pawel Bejda has signed two agreements: with helicopter manufacturer Boeing and with helicopter engine manufacturer General Electric. The agreements relate to the maintenance and repair of helicopter components at Polish factories. Representatives of the American companies are also to train Polish engineers at the Jaroslaw Dombrowski Military Technical Academy in Warsaw.
The concluded agreements bring the signing of a contract for the supply of new AH-64E Apache attack helicopters for the Polish Army closer. Bejda stressed that every contract for the purchase of foreign equipment for the Polish Army must be preceded by a corresponding agreement allowing part of the money spent on the purchase and maintenance of this equipment to remain in Poland. According to him, the signed agreements will allow “strengthening Polish technical thought”.
Poland’s plans to purchase 96 AH-64E Apache attack helicopters in the Guardian version were announced in 2022, but the contract has not yet been signed. In August 2023, the US State Department agreed to sell these vehicles to Poland, and then Congress gave permission. At the same time, the first offset agreements were signed with Lockheed Martin, related, among other things, to the maintenance of helicopter radars and missile guidance systems.
The head of the Polish Armaments Agency, General Artur Kuptel, told reporters that the contract will be signed in “the days to come”. When asked if the planned contract provides for the purchase of the 96 announced helicopters, the general replied that “Their number is adequate to the needs of the armed forces and to the threats”facing Poland.
Recall that in July 2024, Vice President of the Polish Armaments Agency Robert Fromholz reported that Warsaw would receive the first batch of helicopters by the end of this year.
Source: Rossa Primavera
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