Poland confirms the F-35 agreement despite the Pentagon has not yet approved the sale

Poland confirms the F-35 agreement despite the Pentagon has not yet approved the sale.

Poland's Deputy Defense Minister Wojciech Skurkiewicz recently confirmed that the nation will buy two lots of F-35s from Lockheed Martin.

"This is a crucial decision that will take our Air Force to a higher level: the first F-35 Squadron will be established by 2026, the second after 2026," Skurkiewicz said.

According to a previous statement by the Polish MoD Mariusz Blaszczak, the nation intends to buy 32 jets, so presumably the two Squadrons will receive 16 planes each. The 32 Lightning IIs will replace the current fleet of 28 MiG-29s and 32 Su-22s.

Poland started looking at the F-35 ten years ago, but initially the price of the plane was too high for the nation's budget. Furthermore, the uncertainties about the deliveries of the F-35s to Turkey and the intent of Blaszczak to allocate 2 billion dollars to build a base for the American troops deployed in Poland can ultimately benefit the agreement.

Despite everything seems certain, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) has not yet published an official approval. The DSCA is a U.S. government authority that manages and approves all foreign military sales.

The introduction of the F-35 contradicts the choice made by Poland to keep all the pilots' training iter at home. The future F-35 pilots will have to train in the United States while the choice of an aircraft such as the Eurofighter would have allowed the nation to maintain all the training at the flight school of the Polish Air Force as well as having a powerful system for the air defense.

Written by Matteo Sanzani