Posted on 04/21/2015 6:13:44 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
WARSAW, April 21 (Reuters) - Poland looks set to award a total of $8 billion in military contracts to Raytheon of the United States and Europe's Airbus, local media and industry sources said on Tuesday, striking a transatlantic balance as it faces rising tensions with Russia.
Speculation over the deals rose as President Bronislaw Komorowski, Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz and Poland's defence minister gathered to discuss the modernisation of the country's armed forces.
A press briefing was scheduled for 1400 GMT, but Polish officials declined to elaborate.
Daily Gazeta Wyborcza reported Warsaw had chosen U.S. firm Raytheon, the maker of the Patriot missile, as the supplier of a $5 billion medium-range missile defence system, the largest tender in Poland's military history.
And in what seems likely to be its biggest defence acquisition from western Europe since the end of the Cold War, defence industry sources said Poland appeared close to selecting Airbus for a $3 billion deal for 70 helicopters.
Gazeta Wyborcza said earlier that Poland had selected the Caracal EC725 of Airbus Helicopters as its preferred choice over U.S. and Italian competitors, subject to army testing.
"The Polish government will please the two largest military industry players on the Polish market: the Americans and the French," the newspaper reported.
Poland, a NATO member since 1999, had accelerated the process to select a supplier for the missile system after Russia's intervention in Ukraine prompted concern among NATO members in eastern Europe.
It short-listed Raytheon and a consortium of France's Thales and European group MBDA. In March, the defence ministry said the decision would take weeks.
"Choosing Patriots is not a surprise, because Raytheon was the front-runner from the start," Gazeta Wyborcza reported.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Good for Poland.
Note: this topic is from 4/21/2015. Thanks sukhoi-30mki.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.