2024-09-12 15:16 update: 2024-09-13, 13:48
Photo: PAP/Rafał Guz
The South Korean FA-50 light fighter jets that the previous government bought from South Korea came with no weapons, so they can only be used for training, a deputy defence minister said, accusing the former defence minister of negligence.
Mariusz Blaszczak, the defence minister in the former Law and Justice (PiS) government, signed a contract with South Korea in 2022 for the purchase of 48 FA-50s, which would serve the role of light fighters and training aircraft, after Poland decided to donate its Soviet-era MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine as part of a broader international initiative aimed at helping Kyiv fend off Russian aerial attacks.
But the new centrist government has been critical of the purchase after reviewing the contract.
So far, Poland has received 12 of the jets in the GF (Gap Filler) version, but Blaszczak failed to secure weapons for them, Cezary Tomczyk, a deputy defence minister, told parliament on Thursday.
According to him, the delivery of the 36 remaining jets in the PL version custom-made for Poland "is largely at risk" and delays in their deliveries may reach nine months.
While praising the role the FA-50s are playing in the Polish Air Force, Tomczyk said that they can only be used as training aircraft.
"The decisions on the purchase were made very quickly, basically within days, and the interests of Poland and the Polish Armed Forces was simply not observed," Tomczyk said.
He said the 12 planes Poland has already received "were probably the world's first training and combat aircraft which are not combat aircraft," explaining that Blaszczak's contracts did not cover the purchase of weaponry for the fighters.
According to Tomczyk, Poland is encountering problems in obtaining the weapons.
"It is very hard to purchase weapons for this plane today since they are no longer being produced," he said, adding that the Polish Armaments Agency is trying to lease out or purchase used weaponry to make the planes viable in combat.
Tomczyk also said the defence ministry will ask the Supreme Audit Office to "thoroughly scrutinise the contract as far as the decision makers are concerned." (PAP)
jd/jch
