Poland to Buy Black Hawks After Dropping Airbus Helicopters

[lobo221]

Poland said Monday it would buy Black Hawk helicopters from US defence giant Lockheed Martin, days after it blamed French aeronautics giant Airbus for the breakdown in talks over a multi-billion euro contract for military choppers.

“This week we will open talks… Before the end of the year, the first machines of this kind will be delivered to our special forces for exercises,” Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz told reporters.

He did not specify the number of helicopters, nor the exact model or cost.

Macierewicz spoke to reporters while joining Prime Minister Beata Szydlo on a visit to aviation factories in the eastern cities of Mielec and Swidnik that are respectively owned by Lockheed Martin and Italian aerospace and defence group Finmeccanica.

Lockheed Martin subsidiary Sikorsky and Finmeccanica subsidiary AgustaWestland had been Airbus’s competitors for the chopper deal that fell apart last week.

On Tuesday, Poland halted talks with Airbus to buy 50 of its Caracal helicopters, casting a chill on bilateral relations and leading French President Francois Hollande to postpone a planned visit to Warsaw.

The deal would have been worth an estimated 3.14 billion euros ($3.51 billion).

Macierewicz claimed at the weekend that “it wasn’t the Polish side who broke off the talks… Unfortunately the two sides did not see eye to eye on the offset package.”

Offsets are arrangements whereby a supplier of military hardware typically sweetens a deal by setting up a factory in the purchasing country or agrees to place orders with companies there.

Poland’s previous liberal government said in 2014 it was planning to buy Airbus choppers as part of a major military upgrade triggered by regional tensions over Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine that year.

But the new right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) administration called the deal into question not long after it took office in late 2015.

Source

[Steve]

It's probably the French being unreasonable and arrogant that killed the deal, they do arrogance well...not very good at fighting though.

Bye bye billions of Euros....Sacré bleu.

[FunkPumpkin]

The Blackhawk (pictured above) is better looking than the Caracal anyway.

[lobo221]

Previous goverment (PO - platforma obywatelska - civic platfrom) started the negotiations with AirBus company and they've agreed for price of 1 caracal be 80% more in cash than any other country was paying - AirBus was outsorcing the jobs to the France and offset was shit. No wonder PiS (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość - Law and Justice) said no to those terms - now PO is making a big deal out of it, saying this is the end of Poland in EU and some shit like that only becouse they need to give away the bribes they got :-D Hang them high!

edit: And caracals didn't met specifications for the army... half of them need to be sent for our sea forces BUT we dont have any ship capable of hosting this HEAVY chopper on deck.

[spudigitti]

Blackhawks are half the price of the caracal !!!

[Oswald2001]

Why support the French in any way at all?

They are doing as much as they possibly can to actively participate in the complete destruction of Western Europe and Western Culture in general.

And Eastern Europe too.

F*ck The French.

And F*ck The Germans too. They're even worse.

[Geemonster]

Originally Posted by FunkPumpkin

The Blackhawk (pictured above) is better looking than the Caracal anyway.

I like Black Hawks and pretty much any bird made by either Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.

[Oswald2001]

Originally Posted by lobo221

... saying this is the end of Poland in EU...

[lobo221]

'We taught them to eat with a fork': Poland lashes out in chopper feud with France

Poland's deputy defence minister on Wednesday claimed that Poles taught the French how to use forks, as a diplomatic row raged over the handling of a failed multi-billion euro helicopter deal.

He spoke after Paris withdrew the Polish delegation's invitation to the Euronaval industry fair in France this month, amid tension over the breakdown in talks aimed at Poland buying Airbus choppers.

"The French side officially invited us a long time ago and now they are showing us the door," Deputy Minister Bartosz Kownacki said on the TVN24 private news channel.

"But these are the people we taught to eat with a fork a couple of centuries ago, which may explain their behaviour today."

He was referring to the fact that the fork was introduced to France by French King Henry III, who had earlier been elected king of Poland.

Historians are however divided on the origin of that particular fork: some say the king discovered it during a stay in Venice after leaving Poland.

Others believe he really did become acquainted with the utensil in Poland, where the fork was brought over half a century earlier by Poland's Italian-born Queen Bona Sforza.

Kownacki's comments were heavily condemned by the liberal opposition as well as the spokeswoman of the governing conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, Beata Mazurek, who described them as "unfortunate" and "not very diplomatic".

"Minister Kownacki is perhaps the first politician to commit diplomatic suicide by fork," the Polityka weekly commented on its website.

Last week, Poland halted talks with Airbus to buy 50 of its Caracal helicopters, drawing a furious response from chief executive Tom Enders who said his company had never been treated so badly by any government.

The spat has ratcheted up diplomatic tensions between Warsaw and Paris, which was backing Airbus in the process, leading French President Francois Hollande to postpone a visit to Warsaw.

There is disagreement over who actually ended the negotiations.

On Wednesday, several media outlets reported the cancellation of Poland's invite to Euronaval, citing an official letter received at the Polish embassy in Paris.

A source familiar with the matter confirmed the cancellation to AFP in Paris.

Source

:D

[Oswald2001]

Originally Posted by lobo221

Attachment 705341



Source

:D

"Fork the Froggies!"

The Frogs are just upset because they were counting on the money from that deal to bring in more moo slum terrorists.

Oh, and they had some really nice moo slum terrorist training camps planned too.

With their own mosques, spas and even shoe stores. (A little known fact is that terrorists need good shoes. Really good shoes.)

Almost ready to havehad the blueprints drawn up.