On the afternoon of August 28, five grey shapes dropped out of the Atlantic murk and settled onto the runway at Łask, in central Poland. Tail numbers 3512, 3513, 3514, 3515 and 3516. With their wheels down, Poland’s fleet of fifth-generation fighters had just gone from three to eight in a single afternoon.

The jets are F-35A Lightning II stealth fighters, known in Polish service as the Husarz — the winged hussars whose cavalry once thundered across Europe. They had flown the long way from Lockheed Martin’s plant in Fort Worth, Texas, routing across the Atlantic with a fuel stop in the Azores before crossing into Polish airspace.

It is a modest-sounding milestone — five aircraft — with an outsized meaning. These are the first stealth fighters based on NATO’s eastern flank, a few minutes’ flying time from Kaliningrad and the border with Belarus.

From three to eight in one summer

Poland took its first three Husarz jets — serials 3509, 3510 and 3511 — at Łask on May 22, escorted on their final approach by a pair of Polish F-16 Fighting Falcons, the type the F-35 will eventually complement at the top of the Polish order of battle. This week’s arrival of five more brings the running total to eight.

All eight so far come from the American-built portion of the order. Poland signed for 32 F-35As in 2020 in a deal worth roughly US$4.6 billion. Half the fleet is being assembled at Fort Worth; the other 16 will come off the European final-assembly line at Cameri, in northern Italy. The first Cameri-built Polish jet is expected to reach Poland before the end of the year, alongside two more American aircraft.

Guardians of the eastern flank

Warsaw has framed the F-35 as the centrepiece of the most sweeping rearmament in the country’s post-Cold-War history. When the first Husarz touched down in May, Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister put the significance bluntly.

“These are the first 5th-generation fighters on NATO’s eastern flank capable of detecting threats before they themselves are spotted.”

Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz — Polish Deputy PM & Defence Minister (on the first F-35 arrival, May 2026)

Polish officials have signalled they want more still: reporting from June suggested Warsaw intends to seek two additional squadrons on top of the current 32, which would take the eventual Husarz fleet well beyond fifty aircraft. Deliveries of the existing order are due to run into the end of the decade.

For now, the arithmetic is simple and striking. In three months Poland has gone from zero operational stealth fighters to eight on the ground — and every one of them sits closer to the Russian border than any other F-35 in the alliance.

The first Husarz jets arrive at Łask in May 2026.

Sources: Militarnyi; Defence Industry Europe; The Aviationist; Janes; DVIDS; Breaking Defense.