Poland to buy airborne early warning and control planes amid military modernization

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo by Bene Riobó via Wikimedia Commons

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland signed a contract to buy two Swedish airborne early warning and control Saab 340 AEW-300 planes for approximately 600 million Swedish crowns ($57.81 million), the Polish defence minister said on Tuesday.

"Thanks to this, NATO's eastern flank will be strengthened and Polish airspace will become safer," Mariusz Blaszczak said on messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Poland is modernizing its armed forces as a result of the war in neighbouring Ukraine, and plans to spend around 4% of gross domestic product on defence this year.

The early warning systems comprise the Saab 340 aircraft equipped with Saab’s advanced Erieye radar. The contract also includes ground equipment and in-country logistics and support services, the company said in a statement.

It said the value of the order was about 600 million Swedish crowns with a 2023-2025 contract period.

($1 = 10.3793 Swedish crowns)



(Reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk; Editing by Jason Hovet and Grant McCool)