{"id":11634,"date":"2026-06-12T20:14:49","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T20:14:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/11634\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T20:14:49","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T20:14:49","slug":"poland-intends-to-buy-two-more-squads-of-f-35s-minister-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/11634\/","title":{"rendered":"Poland intends to buy two more squads of F-35s, minister says"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u0141ASK AIR BASE, Poland \u2014 On the day that Poland <\/a>officially inducted its first F-35A Joint Strike Fighters<\/a> into its Air Force, the country\u2019s defense minister announced the goal of buying two further squadrons worth of jets.<\/p>\n

W\u0142adys\u0142aw Kosiniak-Kamysz, the deputy prime minister and minister of defense, revealed that the classified Armed Forces Development Program, which was signed off on in December, included funding plans for two further F-35 squadrons. That document, which covers defense priorities ranging from air defenses to munitions to logistics and spells out how Warsaw intends to meet them by 2039, has been largely hidden behind closed doors since its signing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe program includes not only the 32 F-35A aircraft we are accepting into Polish service today, but also two more squadrons\u201d of F-35s, Kosiniak-Kamysz said. A Polish squadron is 16 aircraft, meaning the total would double the existing order to 64. It was unclear from Kosiniak-Kamysz\u2019s comments, however, when those jets might end up on contract or be delivered.<\/p>\n

Of the 32 currently ordered jets, 14 will be fully inducted by the end of this year. Next year, another 12 planes will arrive, and by 2029 deliveries of all 32 aircraft will be completed.<\/p>\n

The minister\u2019s pledge came during an induction ceremony, held at the 32nd Tactical Air Base at \u0141ask. That event included President Karol Nawrocki, representatives of the Ministry of National Defense, and the Polish Armed Forces command staff as well as US Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Thomas DiNanno.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The ceremony today began with a fly-by of two F-35As over the runway, escorted by F-16 aircraft. The aircraft then landed and taxied to the ceremony area, where they were greeted with a traditional water salute.<\/p>\n

In their comments, the officials emphasized that the decision to buy the F-35, made in 2020, was not without controversy internally.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thank those patriots who, in January 2020, did not succumb to negative influences and knew that the strategic alliance between Poland and the United States was essential to Poland\u2019s security. [Former] Minister [of National Defense] Mariusz B\u0142aszczak stood his ground, and today Minister Kosiniak-Kamysz can take advantage of this opportunity to prepare this magnificent ceremony and carry out further tasks for the good of the Republic of Poland,\u201d Nawrocki said, pointing out that \u201cthe continuation of the project by successive Ministers of National Defense is an example of the continuity of state action and responsible thinking about the security of the Republic of Poland.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a great day. It is a day of pride for the Polish Army, but it is also a great day for everyone in Poland,\u201d Kosiniak-Kamysz added. \u201cA sense of pride, community, demonstrating that Poland neither begins nor ends on a single date, that successive governments, presidents, and generations come, and the most important and wisest of all is maintaining continuity, stability, and building the strength of the Republic of Poland.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the ceremony, the first Polish F-35A pilot, Lt. Col. Krzysztof \u201cSniper\u201d Woelke, reported and presented the Polish flag to Nawrocki and Kosiniak-Kamysz. The \u201cgodmothers,\u201d figures picked to ceremonially christen the new jets, were Paulina Kosiniak-Kamysz, the defense minister\u2019s wife, and Capt. Magdalena Boryc-Krakowian, wife of Lt. Col. Maciej \u201cSlab\u201d Krakowian, who died in a F-16 crash in 2025.<\/p>\n

Getting the air base ready for this day was its own challenge, as it started from scratch in 2022. Since then, more than a dozen investment projects had to be completed, totaling almost $700 million. Those include a highly secured Operations and Command Center as well as storage and fuel areas adapted to NATO standards, modern service hangars and specialized buildings for the simultaneous maintenance and repair of F-35 aircraft, locations for flight simulators and a spare parts facility. The main Polish F-35As bases will be \u0141ask and the modernized 21st TAB Air Base in \u015awidwin.<\/p>\n

In early January of this year, the eighth F-35A Husarz \u2014 Poland has nicknamed its F-35s after an elite cavalry formation from the 16th to 18th centuries \u2014 arrived at the US Air National Guard base in Ebbing, Arkansas, as the last of the aircraft that will be used to train Polish personnel. A total of 24 Polish pilots, as well as 90 maintainers\u00a0will be trained in the US, with Polish F-35As used for training remaining at Ebbing until the third quarter of 2027, after which they will be redeployed to Poland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u0141ASK AIR BASE, Poland \u2014 On the day that Poland officially inducted its first F-35A Joint Strike Fighters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8546,74,5736,617,9,448],"class_list":["post-11634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-poland","tag-air-force","tag-europe","tag-f-35","tag-global","tag-poland","tag-wladyslaw-kosiniak-kamysz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}