Poland hits the brakes on S-70i Black Hawk procurement process

BELFAST — Poland’s Armament Agency announced today it has halted a procurement process covering the acquisition of 32 S-70i Black Hawk utility helicopters as it looks to reassess equipment priorities in light of Ukraine war developments.

Pawel Beja, Poland’s deputy minister of national defense, said today a “procedure was conducted and closed” relating to the rotary acquisition, according to a translated post from the Polish Ministry of National Defence on X. “The geopolitical situation, the situation in the east — the war in Ukraine, what Russia is currently buying, equipping its army … is being analyzed by the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces, our pilots, specialists and experts.”

Beja said in a separate post on the social media platform that “the decision [from the] Armaments Agency to terminate the [S-70i] acquisition process resulted from the needs of the Armed Forces,” and refuted reports that supposedly connected the move to the cancellation of a production contract. He noted a contract does not exist.

As Breaking Defense previously reported, Warsaw’s interest in additional Black Hawks traces back to 2023 when the Armaments Agency invited Polskie Zakłady Lotnicze (PZL Mielec) — owned by Lockheed Martin, the Black Hawk manufacturer through its Sikorsky subsidiary — to start “negotiations.” Poland was looking to close a third Black Hawk order, after inking deals for eight Special Forces aircraft.

As part of a broader modernization spending spree, Warsaw has also invested heavily in other helicopters in recent years, chiefly through orders of 96 Boeing AH-64E Apache Guardian attack aircraft and 32 Leonardo AW149 multirole types.

Additionally, Poland is also prioritizing the acquisition of a new helicopter trainer to support Apache and AW149 aircrews.

Lockheed Martin had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.