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Purchase of M-346 Master (Bielik) advanced jet trainers: 2014 contract

completedstage: operational

A contract signed on 27 February 2014 between the Ministry of National Defence and the Italian company Alenia Aermacchi S.p.A. (now Leonardo) for the delivery of eight advanced jet trainer aircraft, the M-346 Master, given the name "Bielik" in Poland, together with a training and logistics package and a ground-training system. The contract was worth PLN 1,167,754,500 (around EUR 280 million), and included an option for four further aircraft (exercised under a separate contract in 2018). The aircraft replaced the veteran TS-11 Iskra in the role of advanced flight training. The first two aircraft arrived at the 41st Training Air Base in Dęblin on 16 November 2016, and the last of the eight aircraft covered by the 2014 contract was delivered in October 2017. In line with the project's rule for defence programmes dominated by weapons purchases abroad, this record serves to give strategic visibility to the Air Force's flight-training pillar rather than to record a monetary value (cost = null, as there is no isolable Polish capital outlay), and it is not included in the aggregated investment value.

How it went

This record carries no outcome assessment on any of the four axes yet. The timeline and sources below show what is known about it; the assessment itself has not been made.

Timeline

  1. AnnouncedFeb 2014
  2. Construction start27 Feb 2014
  3. Delivery2017

Change history

  • 16 Nov 2016stage: operational
  • Feb 2014stage: announced

Significance

The acquisition of the M-346 Master (Bielik) aircraft was a breakthrough in the advanced training of Polish military pilots. It brought into service a modern, twin-engine jet trainer capable of preparing pilots for fourth- and fifth-generation combat aircraft (the F-16, and eventually the F-35), replacing the TS-11 Iskra, which dated from the 1960s. The 2014 contract for eight aircraft, together with an advanced ground-training system (FTD and FMS simulators), established at the 41st Training Air Base in Dęblin an integrated flight-training system that became the backbone of pilot training for the Polish Air Force.

Sources 4 · 4 independent · 4 archived

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Independence is counted the same way the gate that admits a record counts it: subdomains and titles from one publisher are a single voice, Wikipedia is zero. That is why the number is lower than the number of links. Three is the minimum.

  1. [1]M-346 Bielik ↗archived ✓
    Ministerstwo Obrony Narodowej
    StageAnnounced
    StageSiły Powietrzne posiadają 15 samolotów M-346.
    AnnouncedW lutym 2014 roku Polska wybrała odrzutowiec szkolny M-346
  2. [2]M-346 Master – nowy samolot szkolno-treningowy dla Sił Powietrznych ↗archived ✓
    ZBiAM
    Construction startInvestor
    Construction startPodpisana 27 lutego 2014 r. pomiędzy Alenia Aermacchi S.p.A. (obecnie Leonardo-Finmeccanica Aircraft)
    InvestorPodpisana 27 lutego 2014 r. pomiędzy Alenia Aermacchi S.p.A. (obecnie Leonardo-Finmeccanica Aircraft) i Ministerstwem Obrony Narodowej umowa
  3. [3]Nowy Bielik wylądował w Dęblinie. Ostatni czeka na odbiory ↗archived ✓
    Defence2416 Nov 2020
    StatusDelivery
    StatusPolska podpisała kontrakt na osiem samolotów M-346 jeszcze w lutym 2014 roku. Ostatnie z nich zostały dostarczone w październiku 2017 roku.
    DeliveryOstatnie z nich zostały dostarczone w październiku 2017 roku.
  4. [4]Bieliki na dęblińskim niebie – M-346 polskich Sił Powietrznych ↗archived ✓
    Magnum-X
    Investor
    InvestorDostarczone do 41. Bazy Lotnictwa Szkolnego (41. BLSz) w Dęblinie samoloty były pilotowane przez włoskich pilotów.