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Poland ditches military jet tender
Thu Oct 27, 2011 8:39am EDT
* Korean KAI and Italian Alenia were final bidders
* New tender for training aircraft in works
WARSAW Oct 27 (Reuters) - Poland has scrapped a 1.45 billion zloty ($456 million) tender for training-combat aircraft in which Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) had faced off against Italy's Alenia Aermacchi in final talks, the defence ministry said on Thursday.
The ministry will now launch a tender focusing solely on the jets' training capabilities,
which could attract more bidders after companies from Finland and the Czech Republic pulled out of the current tender for 16 aircraft.
Britain's BAE Systems also pulled out, saying Warsaw had to decide between training or combat jets.
"The defence ministry is preparing to launch a new tender to buy a typical training jet," Deputy Defence Minister Marcin Idzik told a news conference.
Poland, the biggest ex-communist NATO member, urgently needs to modernise its ageing air fleet, especially its training aircraft, after a series of deadly accidents laid bare deficiencies in the air force's training procedures.
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