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Poland Air and Air Defense Forces
In 1992 a high military priority was establishing an
air
defense system based on existing assets of the air and air
defense forces. Within that context, early warning and
force
integration were the most immediate problems. Resistance
to enemy
fire and maneuverability were rated as poor by Polish
military
experts. Restructuring plans called for one air defense
corps in
each of the four military districts, each corps having air
intercept and rocket forces. Combined manpower was
projected at
50,000.
In 1992 some 83,000 personnel, including 47,000
conscripts,
served in the Polish air and air defense forces. Active
combat
aircraft numbered 423, with an additional eighty-six in
storage
awaiting sale, and thirty-one attack helicopters. The
forces were
divided into two air divisions. The four regiments of
groundattack fighters totaled twenty Su-20 and 104 Su-22
fighters
supplied by the Soviet Union in the 1970s. For
reconnaissance,
the ground-attack regiments had twenty-four MiG-17 and
eight Su20 airplanes. Air combat forces were divided into eight
regiments
equipped with 221 MiG-21/U fighters, whose equivalents
were long
ago withdrawn from service in the West, thirty-seven more
advanced variable wing-geometry MiG-23MF fighters, and
nine MiG29 fighters, top-of-the-line Soviet aircraft whose
delivery was
curtailed in late 1990. Air combat forces utilized
twenty-four
MiG-21RU reconnaissance aircraft.
In 1992 the air force had two transport regiments
equipped
with ten AN-2 single-engine transports, one AN-12
four-turboprop
general transport, eleven AN-26 two-turboprop short-haul
transports, ten Yak-40 short-haul, three-turbofan jet
transports,
one Tu-154 long-range three-turbofan jet transport, three
Il-14
piston-engine light transports, four Mi-8 helicopters, and
one
Bell 412 helicopter.
Polish helicopter attack forces were organized in three
regiments in 1992. Altogether the regiments had thirty
Mi-24, 130
Mi-2, and twenty-one Mi-8 assault helicopters. Of that
component,
the Mi-2 and Mi-8 were designed in the 1960s and the Mi-24
in the
early 1970s. Eighteen Su-22 fighters were used for
training. The
Polish armed forces stored a large number of redundant or
outmoded fighter airplanes and began selling them to
Western
collectors in the early 1990s. In storage in 1992 were
forty MiG21s and variants of that model, twenty-four MiG-17s, and
twentytwo MiG-15 U7s.
Data as of October 1992
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