A US Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone sits in a hanger at Amari Air Base, Estonia, July 1, 2020. US unmanned aircraft are deployed in Estonia to support NATO’s intelligence-gathering missions in the Baltics. (REUTERS/Janis Laizans/File Photo)
Poland wants to buy several MQ-9 Reaper drones from the US under a special, accelerated procedure and is eyeing further procurements at a later date amid rising security concerns three weeks into a Russian invasion of its neighbor Ukraine.
“We are planning to urgently procure the first MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial systems… We are talking about delivery of several sets,” Lt. Col. Krzysztof Platek, a spokesperson for the Polish Defence Ministry’s Armament Agency, said in an interview on Wednesday.
Simultaneously Poland is pursuing the Zefir program under which the purchase of MALE-class unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) is being negotiated, Platek said, declining to specify which drones might be ordered.
Poland hopes for the first drones to be delivered before the end of the year. The value of the planned acquisition was not disclosed by the ministry.
“This order is an answer to … security situation, particularly in central and eastern Europe,” Platek said, referring to the war in Ukraine, Europe’s biggest since World War II.
In what Moscow describes as a “special military operation” to “denazify” Ukraine some Ukrainian cities have been destroyed and more than 3 million Ukrainians have fled abroad since the invasion started on Feb. 24.
Although both sides cited progress in peace talks that were set to resume on Wednesday, no deal has been announced yet.
Last May, Poland bought 24 Bayraktar drones from Turkey, becoming the first NATO member to buy Turkish-made UAVs. The same drones were used by Ukraine against invading Russian forces.’
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