ŁASK AIR BASE, Poland — On the day that Poland officially inducted its first F-35A Joint Strike Fighters into its Air Force, the country’s defense minister announced the goal of buying two further squadrons worth of jets.
Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, the deputy prime minister and minister of defense, revealed that the classified Armed Forces Development Program, which was signed off on in December, included funding plans for two further F-35 squadrons. That document, which covers defense priorities ranging from air defenses to munitions to logistics and spells out how Warsaw intends to meet them by 2039, has been largely hidden behind closed doors since its signing.
“The program includes not only the 32 F-35A aircraft we are accepting into Polish service today, but also two more squadrons” of F-35s, Kosiniak-Kamysz said. A Polish squadron is 16 aircraft, meaning the total would double the existing order to 64. It was unclear from Kosiniak-Kamysz’s comments, however, when those jets might end up on contract or be delivered.
Of the 32 currently ordered jets, 14 will be fully inducted by the end of this year. Next year, another 12 planes will arrive, and by 2029 deliveries of all 32 aircraft will be completed.
