Poland has canceled plans to buy secondhand F-16 aircraft made in the U.S. to replace the Polish air force’s fleet of Russian-made fighter jets, DoD Buzz reported Friday.
Richard Sisk writes Bartosz Kownacki, Polish deputy minister of national defense, told a parliamentary committee that the country was looking to procure 50 to 100 used F-16 planes.
“The analysis of purchasing of F-16A/B aircraft were carried out by the Ministry of National Defence, the general staff of the Polish armed forces and the armament inspectorate, and after that, it was clear that this was not the right direction,” Kownacki was quoted as saying by DoD Buzz.
Flightglobal reported Gen. Jan Sliwka, deputy commander-in-chief of Poland’s armed forces, said Polish officials learned that Romania’s efforts to acquire and modernize used F-16A/Bs from Portugal “cost more than the price of the same number of new aircraft.”
Sliwka added that Poland’s current fleet of 48 F-16C/Ds can be modernized and operated for another 30 years, according to the report.
