Lockheed Martin presented Poland’s first F-35A Lightning II to the Polish government during a ceremony at Lockheed Martin’s F-35 production facility. 

As announced, this event marks a significant milestone in the Polish Air Force’s history and strengthens the alliance between the United States and Poland, a key NATO ally.  

According to Lockheed Martin, as one of the most advanced 21st Century Security® solutions, the F-35 is the NATO aircraft of choice and will help extend Poland’s strong footprint in NATO through investment in military modernization and enhanced participation in foreign missions. 

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Poland is one of several NATO members that invested in the F-35’s allied deterrence. With its interoperability, Poland’s F-35s, named “Husarz” to pay homage to a cavalry unit from the country’s military past, will network platforms across domains to increase operational situational awareness for Poland and its key European partners.

Senior government and military officials from Poland and the United States attended the ceremony to celebrate Poland’s first of 32 F-35As per its program. The first aircraft, designated AZ-01, will be delivered to the Polish Air Force in December and will be based at Ebbing Air National Guard Base, Arkansas, where Poland will be the first international customer to conduct F-35 pilot training.

F-35s are now operating from 32 bases worldwide. To date, Lockheed Martin has delivered more than 1,000 F-35s, trained more than 2,540 pilots and 16,690 maintainers, and the F-35 fleet has surpassed 889,000 cumulative flight hours. 

We note that Poland is the country in Central Europe with the largest percentage increase (46%) of its defence spending between 2022-2023, while it intends to spend a constant percentage of at least 4% of its GDP, which amounts to 880 billion euros for 2024.

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