– Aviation disasters and various types of air incidents are dealt with by the Air Accident Investigation Commission, which is subject to the Military Aviation Authority. In fact, pilot F-16, General Ślusier, is at the head of this power," said Deputy manager of MON Cezary Tomczyk on Thursday in TVN24.
There will be no more F-16 shows
– And I am convinced that step by step these causes will be explained. We do not deal with this, the committee, which is independent, and the prosecution – he pointed out.
– But here you simply take immediate and remedial action, which in this case comes down to an absolute ban, erstwhile it comes to any shows involving F-16 machines," Tomczyk said.
Let us remind that Poland decided to acquisition 48 F-16 C/D Block 52+ fighters in 2003. The contract amounted to $3.25 billion, or the equivalent of about PLN 13–14 billion according to the then rates. The price of 1 aircraft was on average $67 million (PLN 240–260 million), and the package besides included training, weapons and basic logistical support, as calculated by Defence24 service.
F-16s are very costly fighters
Using machines is besides a immense cost. MON stated that in 2016 the maintenance of the full fleet took 368 million PLN. According to erstwhile estimates from 2013, F-16 flight hr cost PLN 58,7 thousand. By 2021, Polish fighters had already flown 100,000 hours – which means hundreds of millions of PLN spent on fuel and spare parts, as the Defence24 portal calculates.
Importantly, the failure of 1 unit means a fleet decline of about 2% – with a limited number of machines. After the Radom disaster, we only have 47.
At the same time, in August of this year, Deputy Prime Minister and head of MON Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz signed a contract at Military Aviation Plant No. 2 in Bydgoszcz for the comprehensive modernization of F-16 aircraft.
The intent of the agreement concluded between Poland and the USA is to modernise the full fleet of Polish multi-purpose F-16 C/D Block 52 combat aircraft. Modernization works will be carried out at Military Aviation Plant No. 2 in Bydgoszcz.
