According to Lenta.ru, Russia has completed delivery of five multi-role helicopters Mi-17-1V to the Ministry of Defense of Poland. The first three helicopters have been delivered in December 2010 and the last two ones - in February 2011. The helicopters are expected to be passed into service shortly by the 25th air brigade of ground forces in Tomaszów Mazowiecki.

The last two helicopters from the batch ordered by Poland have been delivered using An-124 Ruslan. Specialists of Kazan Helicopters in cooperation with representatives of Polish ground forces have been assembling the helicopters and preparing them for check tests during the period from March 1st to March 3rd, the tests took place on March 4th and March 8th. The claimed performance has been confirmed during the tests.

All the helicopters delivered by Russia will undergo further equipping on Polish facility WZL-1 in accordance with special contract signed with the facility. The helicopters will be equipped with additional armor, communication systems of NATO Link 16 standard, night vision goggles, self-defense systems, armaments and transponders of friend-or-foe identification system. After further equipping the helicopters will depart to Afghanistan.

Polish Ministry of Defense has signed a contract with Rosoboronexport on delivery of five Mi-17-1V helicopters in September 2010. According to some assessments, the amount of transaction was around $55 million. Poland has intended to acquire Russian helicopter from the Polish company Metalexport-S, the corresponding contract has been signed in June 2010. According to the agreement, the company was also obliged to carry out maintenance of helicopters during the period of 20 years.

The contract with Metalexport-S presupposed the delivery of two new Mi-17 helicopters and three used ones. Two of these helicopters have been manufactured in 2009, the rest – in 1991-1993. Polish Ministry of Defense has cancelled the contract with Metalexport-S in early October 2010. According to Polish Deputy Minister of Defense Marcin Idzik, there were two reasons for contract cancellation.

First, Metalexport-S has failed to present all the necessary documents in order to complete the deal to the Polish Ministry of Defense during the period of 60 days after the signing of agreement. Second, the cost of acquisition of five new Mi-17-1V helicopters directly from Russia appeared to be lower than the one charged by Metalexport-S. The amount of contract signed with the Polish company was $114 million.