WARSAW, Poland \u2014 Poland\u2019s Ministry of National Defence announced it has signed a deal to buy four aerostat-based early warning radar systems from the United States under a deal worth almost $1 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPoland will be the second country in the world to use such a system,\u201d Kosiniak-Kamysz said at a press conference today, as quoted in a statement released by his ministry. \u201cThese aerostats will be financed by a loan provided by the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The U.S. Army uses aerostats under its Persistent Surveillance System \u2013 Tethered program, according the service\u2019s website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Poland has ramped up its efforts to acquire new weapons and military gear for the nation\u2019s armed forces. Under the plan, the four aerostats will be deployed to Polish military bases in the country\u2019s eastern and north-eastern parts where Poland borders Belarus and Russia\u2019s exclave of Kaliningrad, according to the national defense ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n The ordered systems \u201chave the capacity to detect a wide range of objects, such as missiles, aircraft, drones, and seaborne units,\u201d the ministry said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In February 2024, the U.S. Department of State approved the foreign military sale, and it was subsequently authorized by Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a statement, the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency said that the principal contractors for this procurement will include Raytheon Intelligence and Space, TCOM, ELTA North America, and QinetiQ\u2019s subsidiary Avantus Federal. Deliveries under the contract will cover airspace and surface radar reconnaissance aerostat systems, airborne early warning radars, as well as related equipment and logistics, according to the agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Manufacturer TCOM received a $450 million contract in 2021 to provide Saudi Arabia with 10 sensor-laden aerostats for communications and intelligence, according to the company\u2019s website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Leaders in Warsaw plan to field high-flying sensors to monitor threats on land, in the air and at sea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":83355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":7,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[7,29],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3307],"class_list":["post-37225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-battlefield-tech","category-home"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"NTZAXIPX7BF3HA2SP3HVNGLRNU","arc_canonical_url":"\/global\/europe\/2024\/05\/22\/poland-spends-1-billion-on-us-made-surveillance-aerostats\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n