POLISH ROAD TO HARPIA
The necessity to procure a multi-role combat aircraft that would
replace the post-soviet Su-22 fighter-bomber/MiG-29 fighter duo
in the Polish Air Force also complementing the fleet of 48 F-16
Block 52+ jets, has been a subject to plans ever since the F-16
procurement contract was signed in 2003. The awareness of the
fact that the Polish Air Force's fleet shall be further modernized
was not aligned with the availability of the funds. The technical
modernization budget had to address several needs of all three,
and, later, four branches of the Polish Armed Forces.
This is one of the reasons why, over the years, apart from the option
to procure further MRCA for another four Air Force squadrons
that has turned out to be impossible to be implemented, several
other ideas emerged, assuming that a smaller quantity of
Western aircraft should replace the Soviet jets. The first idea
was the one analyzed since 2009 and envisaged within the 2010-
2018 Technical Modernization Plan, assuming that the LIFT
training platform procurement should also entail the acquisition
of an extra fighter-trainer squadron (with the trainers coming in
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