Leonardo Helicopters has delivered the first pair of a planned 32 AW149 battlefield support helicopters for the Polish military.
The first deliveries—made on Oct. 30 to the Polish Army’s 25th Air Cavalry Brigade—come a mere 16 months after the $1.82 billion order was placed by Warsaw in July 2022.
The speedy delivery reflects the urgency of the purchase to enable the rapid modernization of the Polish military’s rotary-wing capabilities, which are still heavily reliant on Soviet-era helicopter types—including the Mil Mi-8 and -17 family of transport helicopters.
Polish procurement officials state that the 8.6-metric-ton helicopters have “successfully passed tests” confirming that they meet the requirements specified by the country’s armed forces. With the aircraft formally accepted, they are now being inducted into their military units.
Poland’s was the first publicly acknowledged order for the platform, as purchases from Egypt and Thailand have never been announced. Images of the aircraft show they are equipped with weapon pylons for Hellfire guided missiles, a self-defense suite and an electro-optical camera system.
The order is second time lucky for the AW149 in Poland. Leonardo had previously offered the platform to meet Poland’s requirement for a helicopter that could begin to replace its fleets of Mi-8 and -17s. Airbus’ H225M was initially selected for that program, but that procurement was cancelled in 2016.
Today, Poland is embarking on a major defense modernization drive following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with helicopters at the heart of the recapitalization. As well as acquiring the AW149, Poland has also ordered Sikorsky’s S-70 Black Hawk and is preparing to sign contracts for some 96 Boeing AH-64E Apache attack and AW101 battlefield lift helicopters.
