On Saturday, March 28, 2026, during his visit to the United States, the President of the Republic of Poland and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Karol Nawrocki, visited the FACO (Final Assembly and Check-Out) production facilities of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Fort Worth, Texas, where, among others, F-35A Husarz multirole aircraft for Poland are being manufactured.
Photo: Mikołaj Bujak, Chancellery Of The President Of Republic Of Poland
The President was presented with a completed F-35A Husarz aircraft bearing manufacturer serial number AZ-09 and tactical number 3509, which, together with AZ-10 (3510), rolled off the final assembly line on February 5 this year and was sent to the paint shop for the application of several layers of stealth coating and national markings.
These aircraft are scheduled to be transferred by the end of May this year to the 32nd Tactical Air Base in Łask, which on March 10 was certified to receive fifth-generation multirole aircraft following the completion, at the end of last year, of infrastructure upgrades ongoing since 2022. This was announced on March 21 by the Deputy Commander General of the Armed Forces, Maj. Gen. pilot Ireneusz Nowak, on Polish Radio 24. He specified that an official ceremony presenting the Polish Air Force’s newest acquisition will take place in early June with full honors. The first operator of the aircraft will be the 11th Air Squadron, and the first four instructor pilots are already in Poland. Two more aircraft (AZ-11 and AZ-12) are expected to arrive in the country no earlier than July.
Currently, the first eight aircraft (AZ-01 to AZ-08) are stationed at the Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Fort Smith, Arkansas, where they are used to train a total of 24 pilots and 92 technical personnel, in accordance with the contract. Recently, on February 10, the aircraft surpassed 1,000 flight hours. These aircraft will remain in the United States until the third quarter of 2027, when training is completed, after which they will be relocated to Poland.
On January 31, 2020, the Ministry of National Defense ordered a total of 32 fifth-generation multirole aircraft in the conventional takeoff and landing F-35A Block 4 version for 4.6 billion USD (17.9 billion PLN). Half of Poland’s aircraft are being produced at the aforementioned FACO facility in Fort Worth, Texas, and the other half at FACO Cameri in Italy. Deliveries are scheduled to be completed by 2028.
