Poland signs landmark package with United States for F-16s, U.S. investment

AP WorldStream ^ | 4-18-03 | By ANDRZEJ STYLINSKI

[Oldeconomybuyer]

DEBLIN, Poland, Apr 18, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Poland on Friday signed a deal to buy 48 U.S.-made F-16 jet fighters for US$3.5 billion, the biggest defense contract by a former Soviet bloc country since the end of the Cold War.

Along with the purchase of planes from Lockheed Martin Corp., Polish and U.S. officials concluded an agreement for U.S. investment in Poland, business deals with Polish manufacturers and transfer of technology that the government valued at a minimum of US$7.5 billion.

With its complexity, scope and promise of economic benefits for the former communist nation, the package underscored strong U.S.-Polish strategic ties, reinforced in recent months by Warsaw's support for the war in Iraq.

"Today we have a new quality and a new momentum in Polish-U.S. economic relations," U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill said at the signing ceremony. The package "strengthens not only Poland's security but that of all of Europe, and the role of NATO," he said.

The Polish government announced in December that it had chosen the U.S. government-backed bid over two rival European offers - the Swedish-British Gripen and the French-made Mirage 2000 - to bring its air force up to NATO standards. But negotiating the so-called offset deals took time.

The offset agreement runs for 10 years and involves nearly 50 U.S. companies, including plans by General Motors Corp. to expand a plant in Poland and pledge by Motorola to invest in a communications system for Polish public services. Hill said it was the biggest offset agreement ever.

"We can describe this as the contract of the century," said Polish Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski, who signed the F-16 contract with U.S. Gen. Tome Walters at the Polish Air Force Academy in Deblin, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Warsaw.

The deal also calls for a subsidiary of Houston-based Halliburton Co. to modernize a major Polish refinery at Gdansk and for cooperation between U.S. and Polish pharmaceutical companies. Polish plants are to make aircraft engines and engine parts for Lockheed Martin and for Pratt & Whitney.

The investment package is worth US$7.5 billion, but its value could ultimately exceed US$12 billion as projects are added or updated, industry minister Jerzy Hauser said.

Polish leaders hope the deals will create jobs and boost the sluggish economy, which slowed to about 1 percent growth last year after years of strong growth following the collapse of communism in 1989. Unemployment has reached post-communist highs of nearly 19 percent.

"Today's event is good news for the Polish air force, it's good news for the Polish economy and for the future of our country," Prime Minister Leszek Miller said at the signing ceremony.

The deal will strengthen strategic ties between Warsaw and Washington, and bring new technologies and new jobs to Poland, he said.

Lockheed Martin, based in Bethesda, Maryland, will be replacing Soviet-made MiG fighters as part of its . Poland joined the alliance in 1999, along with Hungary and the Czech Republic.

Analysts and Lockheed officials said the Polish order will help save about 500 jobs at a Fort Worth, Texas plant where the planes will be assembled and lays the groundwork for sales of future-generation fighters.

The purchase contract specifies items of delivery including the aircraft, spare engines, missiles and bombs as well as training for Polish pilots. Deliveries of the planes are to start in 2006.

On Tuesday, Polish defense officials signed a US$1.2 billion deal for the delivery of 690 Finnish-made troop carriers over the next 10 years.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Poland is a strong member of our coalition of the willing.

[IncPen]

"Poland, you get F-16s and cash... France, you get Jerry Lewis"

Sounds fair to me.

[JustPiper]

Poland is a strong member of our coalition of the willing.

And a strong coalition in my family I am so proud to say. Just wish all four of my grandparents were alive to see this! In the 60's it was hard to admit you were Polish, you were derided.

But now ever since the Pope and Lech Walesa, and now being our new partner, FINALLY, being Polish has become 'Polished'.(smiling with joy)

[LS]

Watch for more of this. People miss the fact that ONE of the main pillars of economic growth in the 1990s was the opening of previously closed economies in eastern Europe. That has filtered through the system now, and we are in the "second stage," which is government-to-government sales of crops, weapons, etc. It should serve to boost our economy, and, eventually, theirs.

[Asclepius]

On Tuesday, Polish defense officials signed a US$1.2 billion deal for the delivery of 690 Finnish-made troop carriers over the next 10 years.

Those feisty Finns really know how to carry troops.

[trebb]

And a strong coalition in my family I am so proud to say. Just wish all four of my grandparents were alive to see this! In the 60's it was hard to admit you were Polish, you were derided.

Same here - I'm 50% "pure" - my Dad's parents came through Ellis Island where the name was changed from Blazejewski to Blaze. I'm happy to say that when the Pollack jokes were going around, Dad and I knew them all and then some so when someone decided to spout off, we could outgun them 3 to 1 and defuse any rancor...

[Gefreiter]

Does anyone know anything about these Finnish APCs?

[never4get]

France Withdraws Support from Jerry Lewis

NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE

April 17— In a sign of the deepening rift between
France and the United States, France today announced
that it was withdrawing its support from the
actor-comedian Jerry Lewis.

“AS A NATION, from this day forth we will no longer
consider Jerry Lewis a comic genius,” said French
Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin. “Nor will we be
pressured into thinking he is funny.” For years, France
had isolated itself by being the only country in NATO
to hail such Lewis films as “The Nutty Professor” and
“The Bellboy,” as sublime achievements of a brilliant
comic mind. But by withdrawing its support from Jerry
Lewis now, the nation that has long sustained the
reputation not only of Lewis but also of the unshaven
American actor Mickey Rourke is sending a strong signal
that it will no longer be seduced by America’s dubious
cultural icons. “If I were Madonna I would be very,
very concerned right now,” said Henri Broyard, an
observer of the French cultural scene.

At the White House, aides to President Bush were taking
the French announcement in stride, expressing
confidence that they would soon find another nation to
celebrate the work of Jerry Lewis. While reports
indicated that the administration was prepared to pay
Bulgaria $30 billion to recognize the genius of Lewis
there was little surprise that Britain’s Tony Blair had
not offered to embrace his art. Aides to Blair
indicated that the prime minister’s popularity, now
very high due to his handling of the war with Iraq,
would be “irreparably harmed” if he said he thought
Jerry Lewis was funny.


© 2003 Newsweek, Inc.

[ricpic]

Flying pierogis forever!

[ricpic]

The frogs have had it with Mickey "What Me Wash" O'Rourke? Not pungent enough?

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Don't know anything about the APC's. Sometime just after WWII they were occupied by the old Soviet Union but they forced them to withdraw. Partly because they inflicted something like a million casualties on the Soviets, partly because they paid them off - if I remember correctly- with timber. Not too many nations managed to do this on their own, & the only occupied baltic nation to do this.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Plus our new market in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[betty boop]

Same here - I'm 50% "pure" - my Dad's parents came through Ellis Island....

Ditto, "50% 'pure'"; but it was my Mom's parents who came through Ellis Island....

[Jack of Diamonds]

My family is from the coal mines of PA. Most of the people there are Scots, Welsh, English, Irish, and Polish. The Poles have always had a proud name in that area.

[frostbit]

Greeting card taped to the windscreen of first F-16 delivered:

Dear Poland,

Thanks for the GROM.

GWB

[_Jim]

Next recomended purchases: LANTIRN pods and an assortment of smart munitions ...

[tdadams]

The Polish government announced in December that it had chosen the U.S. government-backed bid over two rival European offers - the Swedish-British Gripen and the French-made Mirage 2000 - to bring its air force up to NATO standards.

I think the last three weeks was about the most impressive sales pitch any nation has ever seen.

[Gefreiter]

Could be these?:

http://www.nato.int/kfor/multimedia/photos/2002/big/b020530c.jpg

[Consort]

...The Polish fin flash will look good on an F-16.

[JustPiper]

Flying pierogis forever!

Holding up hand, throw me some kielbasa ric!