Poland is upgrading the armament of its FA-50 aircraft as part of the Air Policing program

Poland has F-16 fighter jets at its disposal, but seeks to strengthen its air defense using FA-50 combat trainers . To this end, the Polish Air Force equips these aircraft with AIM-9 missiles in various modifications in order to fully meet the needs of the air force, including airspace protection tasks. This was stated by the press secretary of the Armaments Agency, Grzegorz Polak, in an interview with Defense 24.

To strengthen its combat aviation, Poland is purchasing AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles in various variants - this means that in addition to the newest AIM-9X, which is in service with Polish F-16s, older versions of these missiles are also being purchased. According to the Polish official, with these missiles the FA-50 will be able to perform air surveillance missions - Air Policing.

Polak also recalled that aircraft in a more advanced version of the FA-50PL, which has, in particular, the Phantom Strike radar with active electronic scanning, will be adapted from the very beginning to use the AIM-9X missiles already in service with the Air Force.

Additionally, there are plans to eventually adapt current FA-50GF aircraft to the FA-50PL configuration. Moreover, already now the Polish FA-50 “is capable of carrying some air-to-ground weapons, similar to what is already available and used on the F-16 fighters.

Experts on this matter noted that the FA-50 combat trainer aircraft are largely compatible with the F-16, so some of their main weapons are interchangeable. Old versions of Sidewinder missiles will be available in countries that still have them, and stocks of other types of weapons will be replenished at the same time.

Let us recall that Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak announced in October that by the end the Polish Air Force would receive a total of 12 FA-50 combat trainer aircraft. In total, Poland ordered 48 such machines from South Korea.