The key facts

  • An F-16 flight hour costs 76,859 zlotys (~$19,500) including fuel and maintenance — data from Poland's defense ministry
  • A pair of fighters in the air for an hour costs more than 150,000 zlotys (~$38,000), excluding radars, command posts and ground-based air defense
  • Polish aircraft have been flying almost daily in recent weeks; most sorties are preventive, with no airspace violations

Preventive sorties without border violations

Russian strikes on western Ukraine are forcing Poland to bear growing air defense costs even when neither drones nor missiles enter its airspace. This is reported by the Polish daily newspaper Rzeczpospolita, citing data from the defense ministry. According to the newspaper, in recent weeks Polish military aircraft have been scrambled almost daily, as Russia attacks areas close to the Polish border as well. Most sorties are preventive in nature and end without any violation of the country's airspace.

The price of a flight hour

The average cost of an F-16 fighter flight hour is 76,859 zlotys (about $19,500), including fuel and aircraft maintenance. Thus, keeping a pair of fighters in the air for an hour costs more than 150,000 zlotys (about $38,000), while longer missions with aircraft rotations can cost considerably more. At the same time, as Rzeczpospolita notes, this figure does not include the full cost of putting Poland's entire air defense system on alert: personnel, radar operations, command centers and ground-based air defense units remain outside the calculation.

An 'asymmetric' burden and an incomplete air defense network

The newspaper describes the repeated aircraft scrambles as an asymmetric financial burden: according to Rzeczpospolita's assessment, Moscow can force Warsaw to incur significant expenses without directing any weapons into Polish airspace. Poland is investing in additional radars, electronic warfare systems, anti-aircraft artillery and interceptor drones, but this network, according to the newspaper, is not yet fully deployed.