Poland’s Ministry of National Defence is seeking a financial penalty from Leonardo over delayed deliveries of the M-346 Master jet trainers ordered for the Polish Air Force, according to the deputy defence minister.
Bartosz Kownacki said the ministry could see penalties of about 100 million PLN (~€24m) from the Italian company.
Kownacki said: “This would mean that we would obtain one Beilik [jet trainer] from the Italian producer for free.”
In February 2014, Poland signed a deal to acquire eight M-346s along with related logistical support, a training programme for pilots and engineers, and a ground-based training system.
Deliveries of the eight aircraft were initially scheduled to be completed by November 2017.
The first two jet trainers were supplied to the Polish Air Force in November 2016, however, last March, the ministry announced that the delivered aircraft are unable to simulate certain weapons’ effects.
In October this year, a further two M-364s were supplied to Poland, and earlier this month, the deliveries of the eight aircraft were reportedly completed.
