FLOOD VICTIMS ARE RESCUED BY WARSAW PACT-ERA EQUIPMENT. MENAGERIE AND MUSEUM

Some, like the Mi-2, should have been retired long ago. Getting spare parts for the Mi-17 due to the war is a Herculean task. Many other helicopters are simply worn out or too weak for such tasks. Nine years ago, multi-role helicopters were deemed a "tenth-rate need".

The author of the article is Maciek Kucharczyk, journalist of Gazeta.pl.

Had that decision not been made, today we could rely on dozens of modern, large H225M Caracal multi-role helicopters in the fight against the floods. Instead, there is a collection of machines that are mostly either old, worn out, unsuited for such tasks, or all of the above. With the efforts of technicians and crews, they manage, but should "managing" be the standard?

Similarly, there are the ever-living PTS amphibious vehicles, which entered service in the Polish People's Army half a century ago and remain an irreplaceable tool in water-related crises. Heavily worn, cumbersome, and with unknown reliability, but they are the only ones available. Plans to purchase a successor are so vague that the PTS vehicles will likely reach 60 years of service for Poland. For now, they "manage".

Transporter pływający PTS-M ewakuujący mieszkańców Stronia Śląskiego Fot. mł. chor. Piotr Gubernat/SZ RP

It Was Supposed to Be Different, Better Instead of Caracals

The situation with helicopters may be particularly frustrating, as nine years ago, a comprehensive solution to this problem was within reach: replacing a significant portion of the aging fleet of medium multi-role helicopters in the Polish Army. This refers to the now-infamous tender that, during the PO government's tenure, was won by Airbus's H225M Caracal. After PiS came to power, they canceled the contract, citing "insufficient offsets," although Airbus had declared the offsets to be about 100% of the contract's value, which was considered generous compared to later deals made by the PiS government. The then Deputy Minister of Defense, Bartosz Kownacki, called multi-role helicopters a "tenth-rate need" - and Minister Antoni Macierewicz declared that other helicopters would be purchased "faster, cheaper, and better".

In addition to prioritizing other military expenditures, politics played a key role. PiS sought votes in the Lublin and Podkarpackie provinces, home to the factories of Airbus's competitors, Lockheed Martin and Leonardo. Eventually, without a tender, helicopters were ordered from them during PiS's administration. If these orders had been systematic and on a sufficient scale, the issue might not exist today, and no one would mention the canceled H225M purchase. However, it is hard to call these purchases "faster, cheaper, and better," as promised by Macierewicz. Lockheed Martin supplied eight S-70i Blackhawks for Special Forces (and five for the Police), and Leonardo delivered four maritime AW101s and 32 multi-role AW149s. Of these, only the S-70i is currently in service, the newest medium helicopters supporting the flood response.

Aside from these, the fleet includes Mi-8/17, W-3 Sokół, and even Mi-2 and SW-4 helicopters. In total, 19 machines, according to military data from September 17. A real mixed bag, mostly outdated. The Mi-8/17 has been the main transport helicopter of the Polish Army since the 1970s. It was already decided two decades ago that they needed to be phased out quickly and replaced. Today, the average age of our Mi-8/17 helicopters is over 40 years. In theory, there are about 60 of them, but in practice, probably only a fraction are operational. Even before the war in Ukraine, some were grounded due to age and wear. Now, the situation is much worse due to the collapse of the spare parts market, as parts were almost exclusively produced in Russia and Ukraine. There is no official information, but unofficially, it is said that perhaps a dozen are still operational. These are the largest and most powerful helicopters, capable of providing significant assistance.

There are about 60 W-3 Sokół helicopters, Polish-made at the Świdnik factory. The military has complained for decades about their maintenance issues, long repair times, and weak engines relative to the machine's weight. On paper, the Sokół can carry two tons, but in practice, it's about half that, and in difficult conditions, such as placing sandbags on endangered flood barriers, the load must be reduced further for safety reasons. These are not particularly useful transport helicopters, although they are the most numerous in the Polish Army. They also have no future, as the current owner of the Świdnik plant, Leonardo, is not interested in this old, foreign design.

Hierarchical Needs of Equipment

Nine years after deeming multi-role helicopters a "tenth-rate need," only a dozen or so S-70i and Mi-8/17 helicopters are fit for significant assistance. This cannot be called a "faster, cheaper, and better" solution to the Polish Army's helicopter problem. If the H225Ms had been purchased as planned, all 50 would likely be delivered by now. Most would be in transport, medical evacuation, or search-and-rescue configurations, highly useful during natural disasters. Especially since they are upper-medium-weight machines, capable of lifting about five tons. But they are not here. Even the 32 AW149s and eight delivered S-70is do not solve the transport helicopter issue for the Polish Army. Firstly, there are too few, and secondly, the AW149s will not replace the Mi-8/17 workhorses as they are much smaller. They are more like replacements for the W-3 Sokół. Further purchases of multi-role helicopters are in the early preparatory stages. We did, however, buy 96 AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, making us the second-largest user in the world. This is controversial due to their high purchase and operational costs and how specialized they are, as well as the fact that we had planned for just one-third of this number for decades and do not have the capacity to train enough crews now.

The situation with the PTS amphibious vehicles is much simpler. These are specific engineering vehicles, especially useful for crossing rivers and lakes, as well as during floods. Since such tasks don't require anything fancy, replacing the worn and old PTS vehicles has always been low on modernization priorities. The military has about 300 on paper. Plans to phase them out began in the late 1990s but were never implemented. For nearly a decade, the "Jodła-GTI" program has been underway to find successors. It has been suggested that they could be based on the upcoming Borsuk infantry fighting vehicle. Assuming the base version of this vehicle is refined and serial production begins, large deliveries of specialized amphibious vehicles are likely a vague prospect for the 2030s. PTS vehicles will continue to rescue flood victims for about another decade.

Supporting civilian services during crises is a secondary task for the military, not the driver of modernization efforts. However, transport helicopters are highly useful in both wartime and natural disasters. Floods like the current one painfully remind us of the neglect in helicopter procurement. Are they really a "tenth-rate need," and was the alternative to the Caracals "faster, cheaper, and better?"

2024-09-19T06:41:12Z dg43tfdfdgfd