Why did Poland Choose the F-16
Abstract
On December 27, 2002, Poland's Minister of Defense Jerzy Szrnajdzinski announced Poland's decision to purchase 48 state-of-the art F-16's fighter aircraft from Lockheed Martin. The "deal of the century," as it was characterized by Christopher P. Hill, U.S. Ambassador to Poland, was sealed on April 18, 2003 with the signing of the contract by Polish and U.S. officials, and Lockheed Martin senior executives. The contracts involved three separate, but related, agreements: the sale of 48 F-16 52+; an offset package to invest in Poland over a 10 year period; and favorable U.S. Government-backed low-interest financing. Poland's decision to purchase the F-16 had interwoven capability, interoperability, economic, and political dimensions. The main issues that drove Poland's decision to purchase the F-16 included a technical analysis of competing aircraft, price, financing, offsets, and politics. The mass media and the business community, particularly in Poland, portrayed the deal primarily in economic terms, emphasizing the favorable financing offered by the U.S. and the unprecedented offset agreement. Polish officials and politicians painted a picture of a more balanced decision for their constituents, one that emphasized price, tactical, and operational criteria over offsets. Academics, pundits, and officials from the losing bidders, Dassault and Saab/BAE, weighed politics more heavily in their assessment of the decision process than aircraft capabilities or economics. The hypothesis of this paper is that although capability, interoperability and economic interests played important roles in the Polish decision to purchase the F-16, political considerations dominated. This paper provides a comprehensive synthesis of the Polish fighter aircraft selection process, assesses the dominate issues, and answers the question, "Why did Poland choose the F-l6?"
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2007
- Accession Number
- ADA479642
Entities
People
- Barre R. Seguin
- George C. Marshall