Poland resumes talks with Lockheed Martin on MEADS air and missile-defence system 52602161

Defence & Security News - Poland
 
Poland resumes talks with Lockheed Martin on MEADS air and missile-defence system
According to Reuters, Poland has resumed talks with Lockheed Martin regarding the supply of MEADS air and missile-defence system, Bartosz Kownacki the deputy defence minister was quoted as saying in comments published on Thursday, February 18.
     
According to Reuters, Poland has resumed talks with Lockheed Martin regarding the supply of MEADS air and missile-defence system, Bartosz Kownacki the deputy defence minister was quoted as saying in comments published on Thursday, February 18. Lockheed Martin MEADS Medium Extented Air Defense System (Photo Lockheed Martin)
     
Lockheed Martin MEADS Medium Extented Air Defense System is mobile, 360-degree air and missile defense that is NATO interoperable and can defeat advanced short- and medium-range ballistic missiles.

Lockheed Martin had been previously excluded from the tender and Poland had down-selected two other supplier: a consortium of European group MBDA and France’s Thales and U.S. company Raytheon, as potential suppliers.

The tender, whose value is estimated at around $5 billion, is central in Polish army modernisation programme.

In 2015, Poland’s former centre-right government announced it would purchase Raytheon’s Patriot air defence system, a decision which the Law and Justice (PiS) party, then in opposition but now in government, said it would review should it come to power.

Speaking to Reuters shortly before the election, Bartosz Kownacki, who went on to become deputy defence minister, said a PiS government would reconsider Lockheed’s offer as a cheaper option.

“We’re relaunching talks with MEADS “We’re still discussing who will be the supplier of the missile defence solution. Various options and various suppliers are possible. It all depends on the conditions which will be offered to us,” daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna quoted Kownacki as saying in a report published on Thursday, February 18.

Earlier this month, Kownacki said that Raytheon’s Patriot remained Poland’s first choice in the tender, but only if the price was lowered and Poland could access certain U.S. defence technologies.