The helicopter is the primary of 4 AW101s Poland has ordered for its Navy.
The primary of AW101 in Polish Navy colour scheme landed in Poland. The plane is the primary of 4 AW101 anti-submarine and rescue helicopters ordered to reinforce the Polish Navy’s helicopter fleet working the W-3 WARM Anakonda helicopters for SAR functions together with two variants of the out of date Mi-14 Haze used for ASW (Anti-Submarine Warfare) and SAR missions.
On Aug. 7, 2023, the Polish Ministry of Protection Mariusz Blaszczak introduced that the supply flight was underway.
Rozpoczęły się dostawy śmigłowców zwalczania okrętów podwodnych #AW101. Pierwszy egzemplarz jest już w drodze do Polski! pic.twitter.com/TCfUCgekpq
— Mariusz Błaszczak (@mblaszczak) August 7, 2023
Few hours later, the official account of the contry’s Armament Company launched the primary pictures of the AW101 touchdown in Poland.
„Orzeł wylądował!” – pierwszy #AW101 już w Polsce. pic.twitter.com/hX1BlC7bZF
— Agencja Uzbrojenia (@AgencjaUzbr) August 7, 2023
In keeping with the present schedule, the brand new AW101 will endure a collection of exams on the PZL Świdnik aviation plant, earlier than will probably be handed off to the forty fourth Naval Aviation Base in Darłowo. Will probably be used to hold out anti-submarine warfare and CSAR duties, changing the remaining Mi-14s, that can be retired.
The AW101 is a medium-lift multirole helicopter in service with a number of military and civilian operators. With a MTOW (Most Take Off Weight) of 15.6 tonnes and a big cabin in a position to accommodate mission gear and personnel it might carry a 4-6 crew and rescue greater than 20 survivors in a single sortie while concurrently delivering specialised trauma remedy with a devoted medical workforce.
Noteworthy, the AW101, with its three engines, is an ideal maritime/oceanic helicopter: there may be most likely no different platform providing comparable ranges of reliability in some situations, the place lengthy mission endurance and security are a main issue, i.e. over the Arctic waters. That’s why, for example, it was chosen for SAR functions by Norway and Canada (the latter within the CH-149 Cormorant variant).
The contract, price 1.65B PLN (373M Euro), was signed at Świdnik, in southeastern Poland, in April 2019. An offset contract was additionally signed, the beneficiary of which is the WZL-1 plant, which can type a helicopter exploitation help middle. The opposite beneficiary of the offset contract is the Centre for Maritime Navy Applied sciences on the Gdańsk College of Know-how.
Leonardo is to offer technical help for 10 years and PZL-Świdnik is the prime contractor for the Navy programme. Deliveries have been initially scheduled for 2022 however they have been delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
David Cenciotti is a journalist based mostly in Rome, Italy. He’s the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of many world’s most well-known and browse navy aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for main worldwide magazines, together with Air Forces Month-to-month, Fight Plane, and plenty of others, overlaying aviation, protection, warfare, trade, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown a number of fight planes with completely different air forces. He’s a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Pressure, a personal pilot and a graduate in Laptop Engineering. He has written 5 books and contributed to many extra ones.
