Poland is to procure MALE MQ-9 Reaper drones, we have found out. The procurement is to be finalized as an urgent operational requirement, concerning the situation beyond Poland’s eastern border.
The Reapers’ procurement is an ad hoc one, thus not a part of the Zefir MALE UAV procurement program.
I would like to inform you that acquisition of MALE UAVs is pursued both within the framework of the ZEFIR programme that would meet the prospective needs for the development of the capabilities of the Armed Forces, as well as within the framework of urgent acquisition of the MQ-9 REAPER UAVs – in relation to the situation on the eastern border of the Republic of Poland, Lt. Col. Krzysztof Płatek said.
The decision within that scope had been made in the light of the situation on the eastern border of Poland before the conflict in Ukraine began. The Polish Ministry of Defence has been eyeing the procurement of MALE UAVs for quite some time now. Last year, on the occasion of the Wizjer UAV procurement, Mariusz Błaszczak, head of the Polish MoD, announced that the Zefir programme is going to be concluded by the end of 2022.