MSPO 2024: Boeing in early Chinook discussions with Poland, Lockheed prepares to counter

The first Boeing CH-47F Block II was delivered to the US Army on 2 July 2024. As many as 464 more may follow if the army follows through with its planned purchase, and Boeing revealed in September 2024 its ambition to sell the helicopter to Poland. (Boeing)

Boeing has followed up a huge deal to provide attack helicopters to Poland by offering it the CH-47F Block II heavy transport helicopter.

Addressing the media on 5 September at the MSPO 2024 defence exhibition in Kielce, Poland, company officials suggested the heavy transport helicopter would “enhance” Poland's co-operation with NATO partners and “support the country's defence needs”.

Informal discussions

The official offer of the CH-47F ‘Chinook' comes on the back of a deal between Poland's Ministry of National Defence (MND) and the US government, signed on 13 August, which secures the delivery of 96 Apache attack helicopters in the coming years.

Poland's MND has yet to initiate an official requirement for a heavy transport helicopter but Boeing's business development lead for vertical lift programmes, Adam Hodges, claimed the company had already conducted “a few discussions over the last few months and a few this week [at MSPO]”. He added that the MND has also had “informal discussions” with the US government.

Hodges said the MND is “interested in exploring potential to acquire ‘Chinook'” although he conceded any discussions remain in the “early stages”. He went on to describe the CH-47F's “synergies” with Boeing's AH-64 Apache attack helicopter.

Speaking to Janes, Hodges said he had not heard the MND would be running a competition for a tactical transport helicopter.