Posted on 11/10/2006 3:31:12 PM PST by lizol
MiGs on swansong as Poles embrace F16s
Web posted at: 11/10/2006 9:19:37 Source ::: AFP
Krzesiny, Poland • Poland Air Force yesterday gave a fanfare welcome to the first of its new fleet of US-built F16 jets.
President Lech Kaczynski kicked off a ceremony early yesterday afternoon to mark the arrival of four fighters, as a military band played on the tarmac of the Krzesiny air base, near the western city of Poznan.
The event also marked a symbolic farewell to Poland’s fleet of Russian-made MiG fighters, a legacy of the Warsaw Pact past.
Poland has ordered a total of 48 F16s to gradually replace its current fighter force.
At the end of 2002, US manufacturer Lockheed Martin won a $3.5bn (2.9bn euro) contract to help Poland bring its ageing fleet of MiG-21s and MiG-29s up to the standards of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato), which Poland had joined three years earlier.
The F16 deal was the most costly defence procurement contract ever inked by Poland, and Warsaw faced criticism from some other European countries for opting for US-made fighters.
British-Swedish company BAE Systems-SAAB and France’s Dassault Aviation had also fought hard for the contract, proposing respectively the Jas-39 Gripen and the Mirage 2000-05.
There have been some last minute headaches for the F16s. On Wednesday, Polish authorities said that they had asked Lockheed Martin to give details of the technical problems that forced the new fighters to turn around when they were en route for delivery in Poland.
On Monday, the jets had to head back when they were over the Atlantic, after technical problems were detected in one of the aircraft.
On the second attempt to fly the high-technology fighters to Poland, a fresh set of problems forced two of the planes to land at a base in Iceland. The others flew on to Germany.
Two eventually reached the Krzesiny air base on Wednesday afternoon and the remaining jets arrived yesterday.
Reports in the Polish press have hypothesised that the problems were linked to in-flight refuelling or the fighter jets’ positioning system.
Under the F16 deal, eight aircraft are to be delivered by the end of this year and a further 24 during 2007. There are currently 4,300 F16s in service with 42 air forces around the world.
Look at the smoke trails those MiGs leave compared to the F-16s. Interesting, I'd always heard that Soviet/Russian engines were smokers but I thought they'd corrected that in their more modern planes.
}:-)4
Man! That is a beautiful plane. Thanks for posting the photos!
Excellent pictures! Thank you for taking the time to link them.
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"Alright!" |
| New Falcon Scratchers! Match the insignia, |
...and your Country could win a brand new F-16! |
NATO membership required to play. |
The fact is, that these F-16s are brand new ones, whereas the MIGs are around 20 years old.
That was a good one! :-)))
Thanks for the awesome pictures!
Wow. Stunning photos. Thanks!
Beautiful pictures ping!
Outstanding!!!
The F-16 continues to be the most beautiful jet fighter ever built.
They are smokers and that only gets worse when you detune the engines to increase time between removals.
Like riding a bullet...And I see it comes in the family wagon model...
*great* pics... dziekuje!
I noticed those two F-16s had USAF insignia on the right side of the rear fuselage. Perhaps it had something to do with transit over other countries' airspace. Or perhaps they didn't officially belong to Poland until wheels-down on a Polish runway.
Good fighter aircraft look good no matter who makes them.
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