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Poland buys 800 Hellfire missiles to arms its new attack helicopters

By Jaroslaw Adamowski

 May 30, 09:13 PM

U.S. Army Soldiers assigned to Task Force Griffin, 16th Combat Aviation Brigade, 7th Infantry Division, load an AGM-114 Hellfire missile on an AH-64E Apache helicopter in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on May 31, 2017. (U.S. DOD photo)

WARSAW, Poland — The Polish government has signed a deal to purchase 800 Hellfire II missiles that are to be carried by a new fleet of attack helicopters, with a request to buy Boeing AH-64E Apaches still in the pipeline.

The contract for the sale of the missiles, which are manufactured by American firm Lockheed Martin, was inked by the Defence Ministry’s Armament Agency and U.S. Army Security Assistance Command.The deal is worth about $150 million, according to officials. Deliveries are slated to begin this year and stretch through 2029.

Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak said in a tweet Tuesday that the weapons are meant to arm “our AW149 support helicopters, and, eventually, the AH-64E Apache Guardian attack helicopters.”

In July 2022, Poland’s government signed a deal to acquire 32 AW149 helos produced by Italy’s Leonardo. Deliveries of the aircraft are scheduled for the years 2023 to 2029. The contract includes a logistics package as well as training and simulators.

Also last year, the Polish ministry sent a letter of request to the U.S. government to purchase 96 Boeing AH-64E Apaches. Under the plan, the copters would first deploy to the military’s 18th Mechanized Division. Based in Siedlce, about 91 kilometers (57 miles) east of Poland’s capital Warsaw, the division was designated a bulwark against a potential Russian invasion, according to local defense officials.