On November 22, 2023, the Polish-Italian Aviation and Aerospace Forum, also known as the Aerospace Forum, was held at the Bellotto Hotel in Warsaw, Poland, which is the most important event concerning scientific and business cooperation between Italy and Poland in the aerospace sector[1].
The Italian-Polish Aerospace Forum aims to create a strong aerospace value chain between Poland and Italy. The event includes two main parts: a conference with industry experts and a networking session to promote partners and match them with individual companies participating in the event.
The Aerospace Forum is hosted by the Italian Embassy in Poland with the support of the Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Poland and the Italian Trade Agency. The Strategic Partner of the Aerospace Forum is Leonardo, an Italian aerospace consortium that is developing key deployment programs in consultation with the Polish Ministry of Defense. The meeting was officially inaugurated by His Excellency the Ambassador of the Italian Republic in Poland – Luca Franchetti Pardo[2]
“Faced with an increasingly unstable defense situation, military experts, analysts and entrepreneurs from both countries discussed the aerospace and defense industry, which is crucial to the security of citizens. It is a high-tech sector that also has very high costs in terms of research and development. That is why it is so important to support as many cooperation initiatives as possible between friendly countries such as Poland and Italy in order to achieve maximum synergy. The exchange of experiences and services between our countries is an opportunity for both countries to maintain and develop competitiveness and innovation in this vital national security sector,” spoke Luca Franchetti Pardo[3]
Speaking on behalf of the Alioth Foundation was Maj. Gen. Res. Pilot Jacek Pszczoła.
The General was asked whether Poland should (…) join a forward-looking program, e.g. the Jihad Program or the Loyal Wing Program[4], or perhaps there is no point in doing so after all, and it is better to invest in proven designs that are already flying?
The general replied: (…) I would like Poland to join the Jihad Program. (…) we bought equipment, of course it is very important to buy equipment that is proven, is on the market, is used by many forces, in the case of aviation we define our requirements, we buy this equipment and by the way the issue of offsets also comes out. In a few decades on that side of the wall the industry was, it functioned as much as possible, but after the transformation we now have a different reality, the reality of the free market, and I would like as a Pole, as a former fighter pilot and looking here at your representatives of the Polish aviation industry to join this program right now and to participate (. …) so that we would be the cook, one of those cooks who will bake this cake and then divide this cake, we will power these sixth-generation systems, the Polish Air Force, and we will also participate in the sale of this article on world markets. Please note, the first F-16 aircraft landed on Polish soil in 2006, the first F-35 aircraft will land in 2026 – 20 years difference. I would throw to the Polish Air Force that in 20 years, in 2046, the sixth-generation system will power the Polish Air Force. Can we in the future afford the comfort of not having a sixth-generation system? my answer is no. Poland is here, in this part of Europe, we know what kind of threat Russia poses, and despite the problems they have, the war in Ukraine, they are developing their air force and will have such systems. And we as Poland, with the potential and aggression from Russia, we are the ones who will be the first to respond with aviation to the threat, to what Russia can bring to us. Also, answering this question (…) as much as possible, I would like Poland to join the Jihad program now, within the framework of cooperation, and for this final product to land in Poland in 24 years’ time.
Sources:
Photo: Organizer.
[1] Italian Trade Agency, Italian–Polish Aerospace Forum, online – https://forumaerospace.com [accessed: 30.11.2023].
[2] Infinity Agency, The third edition of the Italian-Polish Aerospace Forum was held in Warsaw on November 22,, online – https://dlapilota.pl/wiadomosci/polska/22-listopada-w-warszawie-odbyla-sie-trzecia-edycja-italian-polish-aerospace-forum [accessed: 30.11.2023].
[3] Ibidem.
[4] Recently, there has been a lot of talk about a “loyal wing” program called Skyborg, being implemented in the United States by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). According to it, there are plans to build a BBSP technology demonstrator equipped with Artificial Intelligence (AI) to learn on research flights the behavior from pilots of manned fighter aircraft. This will allow such a “tweaked” BBSP to be more easily integrated into manned fighter jets later, as it will better “understand” the specific behaviors of fighter jet pilots, making it easier for it to program its actions. – online, https://zbiam.pl/artykuly/harpi-szpon-bezzalogowy-lojalny-skrzydlowy/ [accessed: 30.11.2023r]
