Poland To Change Rules On The Use Of Air Force Weapons In Peacetime

Reform.news Editorial Team · 28 September 2026, 13:55

https://reform.news/en/poland-to-change-rules-on-the-use-of-air-force-weapons-in-peacetime/

Poland is changing the procedures governing the use of Air Force weapons in peacetime. Deputy Defence Minister Cezary Tomczyk announced the move. According to him, the procedures will be updated in the coming days. As a result, aircraft and helicopter pilots will be able to use weapons to engage drones without first establishing visual contact with the target.

Under the revised procedures, visual identification will be replaced by positive identification. This means that an object may be identified based on information from radar systems and additional indicators, rather than visual observation alone.

“This may include the direction from which the object crossed the border, the absence of a reliable response from the friend-or-foe identification system, the correlation of the same target across different radars, its speed, altitude, trajectory or flight characteristics typical of a cruise missile or drone,” Tomczyk explained.

As a result, aircraft and helicopter pilots will be able to engage targets at a distance. This is expected to improve response times to drone incidents.

“Until now, we have not used these capabilities because they are generally intended for wartime or martial law conditions. However, given the threat and the fact that Poland is now facing the possibility of drones entering its territory on a daily basis, we must implement these changes in the interests of both pilots and national security,” Tomczyk stressed.

It should be recalled that a Kh-101 missile entered Polish airspace this year. Fighter jets were scrambled to intercept it. However, by the time the pilots established visual contact with the object, the missile had already fallen and exploded in the Lublin Voivodeship.