On Thursday, officers from the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces, the Armament Agency, the General Command of the Armed Forces and the 12th Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Base, the first hangar for a drones unit in the Polish army, took part in the Defence24 Day conference in Warsaw.
Albert Zawada/PAP

The Polish army will need another airport to handle unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) if the planned purchase deals are completed, a top military officer has said.

On Thursday, officers from the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces, the Armament Agency, the General Command of the Armed Forces and the 12th Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Base, the first hangar for a drones unit in the Polish army, took part in the Defence24 Day conference in Warsaw.

They discussed plans to equip the Polish army with MALE (Medium Altitude Long Endurance) class drones, tactical Griffin armament and Harpy Claw, loitering munition missiles for multi-role F-35 combat aircraft.

According to the head of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces, Łukasz Andrzejewski-Popow, if the purchase plans materialise, at least one more airport for this type of equipment will be needed in addition to Mirosławiec base.

“Together with the General Command, we are planning to acquire another airfield. We are aware that so many systems would not be able to use one airport. If all the planned contracts are fully implemented, we will need one, maybe two airports for these systems to operate,” he said.

Air Force Inspector at the General Command of the Armed Forces, Ireneusz Nowak said that the number of unmanned aerial vehicles that the army intends to buy “is large”. But he stipulated that due to the open nature of the conference, he could not provide the figures.

Mariusz Żokowski from the Armament Agency confirmed the purchase of subsequent batches of Polish-made Warmate loitering ammunition and FlyEye drones. “We are buying more, we are thinking about diversification,” he added.