First Polish F-35 arrives at Łask Air Base

The first three F-35s arrived at Łask Air Force Base in Poland after completing a delivery flight from Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth production plant.

The Polish Air Force has delivered three F-35A Lightning II fighter jets to the country for the first time. The aircraft landed at Rask Air Force Base near the end of a delivery flight from the Lockheed Martin production plant in Fort Worth, Texas, to Poland on May 22, 2026, after a stop in the Azores at Lajes Air Force Base.

Upon arrival, the F-35s were escorted by two F-16 Fighting Falcons, Poland’s current main fighter aircraft. These fighters are not the first F-35s for the Polish Air Force, as eight of them have already been delivered to Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Arkansas for training.

Poland’s first F-35, designated Husarz, made its first flight on December 2, 2024. Shortly thereafter, the aircraft were relocated to Ebbing, where as part of a training program for Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers of the F-35, Poland planned to base the first eight aircraft before beginning domestic deliveries.

Aircraft landing at Łask Airbase were marked with serial numbers 3509, 3510 and 3511, while aircraft numbered 3501 to 3508 were at Ebbing. Notably, 3511 also includes tail art depicting a panther, reflecting the unofficial nickname “Panther” given to the F-35.

“This is a good day for Poland, the Polish Army and the Air Force,” said Deputy Prime Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz. “The first three F-35s landed at the 32nd Air Force Base in Łask, Poland, which became home to today’s F-35 aircraft.”

According to an official statement from 2021, initially Łask was planned to host the entire F-35 fleet. It was later decided that the fleet would be split between Łask and Świdwin, which previously hosted the Su-22 Fitter fleet.

Łask is also one of two bases hosting the Polish F-16C/D Block 52 fleet. The fighter will undergo the Mid Life Upgrade (MLU) program for an upgrade to F-16V Block 72 standard, which will, among other things, improve integration with the F-35.

Polish F-35A program

According to an announcement from the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), on September 11, 2019, the U.S. State Department approved the sale of 32 F-35 fifth-generation jets to Poland for $6.5 billion. Poland has selected the F-35A conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) variant to replace its aging Soviet-era MiG-29 and Su-22 fleet.

In January 2020, a contract was signed to purchase 32 F-35s, with first delivery scheduled for 2024. Along with the aircraft, Poland also acquired various weapons systems for the F-35, including AIM-120C-8 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles and “hundreds” of AGM-158B JASSM-ER cruise missiles.

Procurement of additional weapons such as AIM-9X-2 Sidewinder missiles and AGM-88G Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile-Extended Range (AARGM-ER) missiles were also approved. These contracts were awarded in 2024 and 2025 respectively, followed by the contract for AIM-120D-3 AMRAAM in 2025.

In 2021, it has been decided that 32 Polish F-35 aircraft will be fully stationed at Łask AB in central Poland. Later, Świdwin was also selected and the F-35s were divided between the two bases.

On August 28, 2024, the first Polish Air Force F-35A, designated AZ-01, was officially unveiled during a rollout ceremony held at Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth, Texas facility in the presence of Polish officials. However, the first aircraft to fly was AZ-02, which successfully completed its first test flight on December 2, 2024.

The first aircraft was delivered to Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Arkansas, where Polish pilot training is taking place. This is because the base is used to train Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers. The first F-35s were scheduled to arrive in Poland in 2026, with the remaining fighters to be delivered by 2030.

As expected, Polish Air Force F-35s do not have the traditional white and red checkerboard livery, which has been replaced with a less visible version of the livery. This represents a significant change, as all Polish Air Force aircraft, including the Su-22 and MiG-29, historically wore a full-color white and red checkerboard, even after being repainted in the new all-gray camouflage scheme.

Name of Polish F-35

After the Polish military took delivery of the F-35, the Polish military staff announced a competition for a name for the new fighter jet. Individuals submitted proposed names for the F-35 fighter jet to a post on the official profile of the Polish Armed Forces Chief of Staff on social media, which remained online from April 12 to April 18, 2024.

As a result of the vote, the official nickname for the Polish F-35 was Husarz (Polish for Winged Hussar). Notably, until now individual aircraft operating in Poland have been nicknamed birds of prey (e.g. “Sokol”, Polish for “hawk”, or Jastrzębie, Polish for falcon).

‘Hussars’ were a class of light cavalry first formed in the Kingdom of Poland in the early 16th century.