Posted on 02/01/2010 11:59:00 AM PST by lizol
Poland set to buy aerial drones for its troops in Afghanistan
RIA Novosti. Alexei Danichev
21:5201/02/2010
Poland is set to buy eight unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) from an Israeli defense firm to strengthen its contingent in Afghanistan, the country's defense minister said on Monday.
"Four drones will be delivered to Afghanistan [for the Polish contingent there] and the four others will be used for training in Poland," Bogdan Klich told a news conference in Warsaw.
The contract with the Aeronautics firm is worth about $32 million, he added.
Klich said Poland was also planning to buy five Mi-17 helicopters to be deployed in Afghanistan.
Poland maintains a 2,000-troop contingent in the war-torn Central Asian country as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), and plans to send 600 more troops this year.
Why does Poland want Russian birds?
Thats what the PoAF have operated and what the pilots are qualed on, and what the logistics chain supports.
They’re much cheaper, I suppose.
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