Poland's proposal on Patriot servicing centre gets top review, minister says

Lockheed Martin

Today 10:10

WARSAW, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Poland's offer to host a servicing centre for Lockheed Martin's LMT.N Patriot interceptor missile has received the firm's highest rating among proposals from four countries, Polish deputy defence minister Magdalena Sobkowiak-Czarnecka said on Friday.
"The proposal from Poland received the highest evaluation," Sobkowiak-Czarnecka told private broadcaster Radio Zet. She said that while Lockheed Martin reviewed the proposals, the final decision was political and she expected Washington to announce it in the coming days.
Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden are bidding for the project — which the US has said could lead to establishing a production line — as they seek missile maintenance and production capabilities to shore up their defences.
Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have strained stocks of air-defence interceptor missiles and caused delivery delays, prompting countries to seek maintenance and production capabilities closer to home.
Sobkowiak-Czarnecka said US Under Secretary of Defense Michael Duffey, who first revealed plans for Lockheed Martin's maintenance facility in Europe in July, would be coming to Poland early next month.
She also said that Polish defence minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz would visit the Pentagon within several weeks.

 (Reporting by Karol Badohal
Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
 ((karl.badohal@thomsonreuters.com;))