Two Polish state-owned firms have signed offset agreements with Boeing covering maintenance and ground support for Poland’s incoming fleet of 96 AH-64E Apache attack helicopters, work that will make the country the world’s second-largest Apache operator after the United States, the company stated.
The agreements were signed at the Wojskowe Zakłady Lotnicze Nr 1 facility in Łódź, with representatives of the Polish Ministry of National Defence, the Polish government and the armed forces present.
Under the arrangement, WZL-1 will provide maintenance, repair and overhaul services for the aircraft, covering organisational and intermediate level inspections and repairs along with selected depot-level component work. Boeing and the Military Central Bureau of Design and Technology, known as WCBKT, will separately assess whether Polish-designed ground support equipment can be used with the Apache, work intended to establish where domestic engineering solutions fit into the sustainment programme.
Jacek A. Goszczyński, chief executive of WZL-1, said: “For WZL-1, establishing the largest Apache support infrastructure in Europe is both a responsibility and a natural extension of our core business activities. This agreement will enable us to provide support to the Polish Armed Forces, significantly enhancing their operational capabilities.”
Marc-Olivier Sabourin, vice president for EICLA and training solutions at Boeing Global Services, said: “Signing these agreements marks a significant milestone in Boeing’s partnership with Poland and demonstrates our enduring commitment to supporting the Polish Armed Forces through robust, in-country sustainment and maintenance capabilities. Together with WZL-1 and WCBKT, we are building the industrial framework, technical expertise and workforce needed to support Poland’s Apache fleet for decades, while strengthening Poland’s sovereign defense capabilities.”
Roman Fiszer, chief executive of WCBKT, said: “Signing the implementation agreement with Boeing marks a significant step toward increasing the Polish defense industry’s participation in the AH-64E Apache support program. For WCBKT S.A., this represents an opportunity to further develop capabilities and strengthen the company’s position as a national center of expertise in the design, manufacture, and servicing of ground support equipment for modern military platforms.
“We believe that utilizing equipment developed and manufactured by WCBKT S.A., alongside the potential of the Polish industry, will enhance logistical support efficiency and strengthen the operational independence of the Polish Armed Forces.”
Offset agreements of this kind are a standard feature of large foreign arms purchases, requiring the seller to place work with local industry in return for the order, and they are usually where the argument over sovereign capability is actually settled. A fleet supported entirely from abroad depends on someone else’s supply chain and someone else’s political consent; one supported at home does not.
Poland’s Apache order is the largest export sale of the type. Warsaw signed for 96 aircraft in 2024 as part of a broader rearmament programme that has also brought in Abrams tanks, K2 tanks and K9 howitzers from South Korea, HIMARS rocket artillery and Patriot air defence, funded by defence spending that has run above 4 per cent of GDP, the highest share in NATO.
The country is the 19th nation to operate the Apache, of which around 1,300 are in service worldwide. Boeing says the type continues to take on new roles including counter-drone work.
WZL-1 is part of the Polish Armaments Group and operates facilities at Łódź and Dęblin, with more than 80 years of aircraft maintenance and overhaul work behind it. The company has also signed agreements tied to Poland’s Abrams tank purchase, produces launch canisters for PAC-3 MSE missiles and supports the Polish M-346 trainer fleet. WCBKT, also part of the Polish Armaments Group, has been the country’s only domestic manufacturer of ground support equipment since the early 1990s.
