Poland
leases MQ-9A Reapers ahead of drone buy
Oct 21, 05:57 PM
A U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper takes off from Creech Air Force Base, Nev., on Sept. 1, 2021. (Tech. Sgt. Emerson Nuñez/U.S. Air Force)
WARSAW,
Poland — The Polish Ministry of National Defence has signed a deal to lease a
set of MQ-9A Reaper drones from U.S. manufacturer General Atomics. The move
comes as the ministry is readying to purchase MQ-9B Reapers for the country’s
military.
“The
contract has a net value of $70.6 million, and the service will be provided [to
Poland] until the Polish Armed Forces acquire and put into use the MQ-9B Reaper
unmanned aerial reconnaissance-strike systems,” the ministry’s Armament Agency,
the entity responsible for buying weapons and military gear for the country,
said in a statement.
The
planned acquisition of an undisclosed number of aircraft is poised to make
the Polish Armed Forces the first military on NATO’s eastern
flank to purchase the medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) drone.
Earlier
this year, Lt. Col. Krzysztof Płatek, a spokesperson for the Armament Agency,
told Defense News the forthcoming drone acquisition “is related to the
situation on Poland’s eastern border” with Ukraine which is currently combating
Russia’s invasion.
Russia’s
aggression against Ukraine has pushed a number of countries across the region to
accelerate their acquisition plans for unmanned aerial vehicles. Some of the
nations which are in the process of procuring drones for their militaries
include the Czech Republic, Romania, Lithuania, and Moldova, among others.
The
MQ-9A Reaper’s users include the United States, the United Kingdom, France,
Italy, and Spain, according to data from General Atomics.
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