Poland has put into service the first of its new state-of-the-art F-35 fighter jets from the United States as part of a sweeping rearmament programme, Polish news agency PAP reported on Friday.
President Karol Nawrocki said during a ceremony at Lask air base near Łódź that Poland would be safer and stronger in the coming years with the new aircraft.
Nawrocki and Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz called the multibillion-dollar arms purchase a sign of the close alliance between the US and Poland, PAP reported.
Ahead of the ceremony, the stealth multirole fighter jets did a flyover of Gdańsk, Warsaw and Kraków.
Poland signed a contract in 2020 worth $4.6 billion for 32 F-35A jets. The aircraft, considered fifth-generation fighter jets, are to be delivered in stages by 2029.
Situated on the eastern flank of both NATO and the European Union, Poland feels acutely threatened by Russia. Warsaw therefore ordered fighter aircraft and tanks on a large scale and is aiming to build the largest conventional armed force in the EU. The Polish navy is also to receive submarines from Sweden.
