Updated 6/9/2025 at 9:20am ET with comment from Lockheed Martin.
BELFAST — Poland’s Armament Agency announced today it has halted a procurement process covering the acquisition of 32 S-70i Black Hawk utility helicopters as it looks to reassess equipment priorities in light of Ukraine war developments.
Pawel Beja, Poland’s deputy minister of national defense, said today a “procedure was conducted and closed” relating to the rotary acquisition, according to a translated post from the Polish Ministry of National Defence on X. “The geopolitical situation, the situation in the east — the war in Ukraine, what Russia is currently buying, equipping its army … is being analyzed by the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces, our pilots, specialists and experts.”
Beja said in a separate post on the social media platform that “the decision [from the] Armaments Agency to terminate the [S-70i] acquisition process resulted from the needs of the Armed Forces,” and refuted reports that supposedly connected the move to the cancellation of a production contract. He noted a contract does not exist.
As Breaking Defense previously reported, Warsaw’s interest in additional Black Hawks traces back to 2023 when the Armaments Agency invited Polskie Zakłady Lotnicze (PZL Mielec) — owned by Lockheed Martin, the Black Hawk manufacturer through its Sikorsky subsidiary — to start “negotiations.” Poland was looking to close a third Black Hawk order, after inking deals for eight Special Forces aircraft.
“Polish operators rely on the Black Hawk helicopter for their missions today and we firmly believe that the Black Hawk is the ideal platform to further support and strengthen Poland’s national security,” said a Lockheed Martin spokesperson in a Monday statement. “We look forward to continuing our long-standing partnership with Poland where local industry and our 1,700 PZL Mielec employees are involved in the manufacture of F-16 fighters and Black Hawks that support security and emergency response in countries around the world.”
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As part of a broader modernization spending spree, Warsaw has also invested heavily in other helicopters in recent years, chiefly through orders of 96 Boeing AH-64E Apache Guardian attack aircraft and 32 Leonardo AW149 multirole types.
Additionally, Poland is also prioritizing the acquisition of a new helicopter trainer to support Apache and AW149 aircrews.