Northrop Grumman has signed a memorandum of understanding with Polish company Exence and the Polish Air Force’s Institute of Technology (ITWL) focused on delivering an airborne command-and-control (C2) capability for the Polish Air Force based on the company’s E-2D airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft.
The MoU was signed at the International Defence Industry Exhibition (MSPO) in Targi Kielce on 4 September 2024.
Janice Zilch, vice president of Northrop Grumman’s multi-domain command-and-control business unit in Poland, stated at the MoU signing, “Our partnerships with ITWL and Exence will establish a strong allied force of capabilities that will align to Poland’s defence requirements. These partnerships will help develop Poland’s airborne command-and-control capabilities.
“Likewise,” he added, “we will work together to apply the decades of mission area expertise and combat-proven products and human capital that ultimately will deliver the premier airborne command-and-control asset inland for Europe. We are very excited about the future and how our collaborative efforts will best serve Poland.”
At first glance it may appear strange that Northrop Grumman is pushing the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye AEW&C platform into the Polish market, as Poland already operates two Saab 340-based Erieye AEW&C aircraft, which were ordered in July 2023 and delivered in March and June this year. However, these platforms were purchased under an urgent operational requirement following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and are, in fact former Emirati AEW&C platforms that were retired in 2020. It is thus very likely that Poland will pursue a more comprehensive AEW&C solution.
Meanwhile, Northrop Grumman has already supplied Poland with components of its Integrated Battle Command System (IBCS) as part of Poland’s Wisła medium-range air defence capability, which achieved an initial operational capability in September 2023.
A key feature of IBCS is its ability to connect and fuse multi-service sensor data to multi-service weapons to produce joint all-domain command and control (JADC2) capabilities. IBCS would clearly integrate seamlessly with Northrop Grumman-supplied E-2Ds.
As well as the US Navy, the E-2D has been ordered by France and Japan.
