Poland assisted us in the war and now we will assist them in building their defenses:

Poland signed a 3.5-billion-dollar contract to buy 48 Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter planes, marking a further strengthening of ties between the central European country and the United States.


Signed in the central city of Deblin in the presence of Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller, the accord involves US promises of billions of dollars of investments.

"It's the contract of the century," Defence Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski said at the signing ceremony.

Poland needs the planes to come up to the standards (news - web sites) of the NATO (news - web sites) military alliance which it joined in 1999.

Some EU countries, read France and Germany, aren't that happy:

Lockheed Martin snared the contract in December, beating bids from British-Swedish consortium BAE Systems-SAAB with its Jas-39 Gripen and France's Dassault Aviation with its Mirage 2000-5.

The deal drew criticism from European Union (news - web sites) countries that thought a member-in-waiting should have given its business to an EU company.

More veiled threats from Chirac and company. I think that the F-16's proved themselves to be excellent aircraft, where as the Mirage was no where to be found.