A contract for the delivery of AW149 multi-role support helicopters will be signed soon, the defense minister Mariusz Błaszczak announced during the briefing with the participation of President Andrzej Duda. The Leonardo Helicopters AW149s will be built at the PZL Świdnik plant.
The helicopters will be acquired under the Perkoz multi-role support helicopters program. According to the technical dialogue announcement, this program assumes the acquisition of 32 multipurpose crafts in three different variants:
- combat support with the possibility of conducting advanced aviation training
- command
- reconnaissance and electronic warfare
AW149 is one of the newer designs of Leonardo Helicopters, built on a modular basis with extensive use of composite materials.
AW149s are used by the armed forces of Italy and Thailand. In 2020, they were purchased by Egypt. They are also offered to the British Armed Forces in the ongoing tender for a successor to Puma multipurpose machines. If they are bought by the Polish armed forces, a significant part of their production, including assembly, should be carried out by the PZL-Świdnik plants, which belong to the Leonardo Helicopters concern.
