The Brazilian aerospace company Embraer and the Polish defense company Wojskowe Zakłady Lotnicze Nr 2 (WZL-2), a subsidiary of the state-owned Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa (PGZ), have signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA).
The agreement aims to establish a framework for future industrial cooperation in the areas of service, maintenance, and systems integration. The partnership focuses on the KC-390 Millennium military transport aircraft, for which local maintenance capabilities are to be developed in Poland. The official signing ceremony took place with the participation of representatives from the PGZ board and Embraer's defense division.
The cooperation aims to facilitate technology transfer to the Polish defense sector and ensure the operational readiness of military aircraft in Poland. WZL-2, a previous partner of the Polish Armed Forces, brings experience in maintaining aircraft such as the F-16 and the C-130 Hercules to the project. The twin-engine KC-390 transport and tanker aircraft, with a payload capacity of 26 tons, has been selected in recent years by several European NATO countries, including Portugal, Hungary, the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, and the Czech Republic, for the modernization of their air forces.
Military experts view the agreement as part of Poland's ongoing efforts to diversify its domestic defense industry in light of the changing security situation in Eastern Europe. Critics, however, point out that declarations of intent of this kind do not yet constitute binding contracts, and actual implementation often depends on lengthy negotiations over financing and specific work assignments. Furthermore, the European market for transport aircraft competes with established American models, meaning that building economically viable maintenance structures in Poland requires sustained workloads from European customers.