Recently, the news that "the Poland Air Force returned the Korea FA-50 fighter jet" circulated on the Internet, vowing that the Korea fighter was completely empty, so it was announced by the Poland Ministry of Defense to return.
The author was skeptical of this news at first, but after collecting reliable sources from all sides, I found that this claim was basically fabricated.
According to some domestic articles, the Poland authorities are ready to return one of the delivered squadron FA-50s and cancel the follow-up contract, on the grounds that "Korea only provided empty shells of the FA-50", and internal equipment and weapons could not be provided, including "the FA-50 cannot use United States air-to-air missiles", and even "Dongda stopped exporting F404 engine blades" and other reasons.
The intuitive view for readers is that the contract for the export of Korea's FA-50 to Poland has completely failed.
However, when reading the recent international defense news, the author saw the latest news that "Korea is about to deliver FA-50PL fighters to Poland." The FA-50PL is the second batch of FA-50s purchased by Poland (a total of 32 aircraft, deliveries are expected to begin in 2025), and the first batch belongs to the FA-50GL type (12 aircraft in total), which has been delivered in 2023.
The Poland media outlet Defense 24 Hours also published photos of the first FA-50PL fighter being assembled to show "the latest advances in the Poland Air Force."
That is, the contract for the export of FA-50L from Korea to Poland is still proceeding smoothly, and there is no such thing as a "cancellation" at all, let alone a "return".
In fact, the news fabricated by these articles in China is a deliberate exaggeration and distortion of a true news story in Poland. The real news is that the Poland Ministry of Defense asked in September to "review the contract for Korea's FA-50 aircraft", and Deputy Defense Minister Chezari · Tomchik even claimed that the FA-50 was a "trainer aircraft that does not have fighter capabilities" on the grounds that the aircraft could not launch the latest American-made air-to-air missiles.
Although the Poland military has expressed dissatisfaction with the FA-50, it is far from being returned. The Poland military's dissatisfaction with the FA-50 mainly began with high initial expectations, due to the excessive hype of the Korean side of the propaganda, allowing the Poland Air Force to position the FA-50 as a "small F-16", ready to use it as a replacement for the MiG-29 and serve as the main force in air combat. However, the Deputy Minister of Defense of Poland believes that the air combat capabilities of the FA-50 are not even comparable to the MiG-29.
Poland's "Defense 24 Hours" pointed out that when the two countries signed the FA-50 procurement contract, they did not include airborne weapons, because the FA-50 can directly use F-16 weapons, including AIM-9M/L air-to-air missiles, AGM-65 "Maverick" air-to-surface missiles, JDAM precision-guided bombs, etc., which are the existing equipment of the Poland Air Force.
However, the AIM-9M/L missile has been discontinued and can no longer guarantee the use of the FA-50, which is one of the main reasons why the Deputy Minister of Defense of Poland believes that "the FA-50 cannot form a combat force", but Poland has purchased more advanced AIM-9X missiles for the F-16, which can also be used by the FA-50PL.
The only loophole in the FA-50 procurement contract is that it still cannot be adapted to the AIM-120C medium-range air-to-air missile, because it has not been approved by United States authorities, and the approval process is thought to take 3-4 years.
This is the biggest problem that seriously affects the air combat capabilities of the FA-50, but that's about it. However, to exaggerate this issue as "Poland will return all FA-50s and cancel all contracts" is a complete fabrication.
In any case, Poland's dissatisfaction with the FA-50 also exists objectively, but most of the blame is attributed to the "mistakes" of the Poland Ministry of Defense, which did not communicate the compatibility license of the United States in advance, not the Korea manufacturer.
The analysis of the Poland media is also sharp, and the first "Defense 24 Hours", which first released the first KA-50PL assembly photo, pointed out: as an upgraded version of the KA-50PL, the on-board equipment is very advanced, with advanced AESA generations and Link 16 data link, can carry the "Sniper" advanced aiming pod and AIM-9X advanced combat missile, and even has a helmet-mounted sight, the configuration can be called very luxurious, the only drawback is that it is still not confirmed whether AIM-120 missiles can be integrated.
Therefore, "Defense 24 Hours" unceremoniously believes that the FA-120PL of the AIM-50 cannot be used, and can only serve as a "successor to the Su-22 fighter-bomber", that is, for dropping bombs. (Author: Tao Mujian)