Polish FA-50GF trainer aircraft manufactured in South Korea will not be upgraded to PL or Block 20 standard, which would provide full light fighter capability. The reason cited is economic unfeasibility.
Polish Air Force Major General Ireneusz Nowak told Defence24 that the existing ELTA ELM-2032 radars on the "flying desks" have good effectiveness and performance compared to Poland's existing F-16C/Ds.
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The already-delivered FA-50GFs will primarily be used for training personnel who will subsequently fly F-16s and F-35s. South Korean pilots say only 11 hours may be needed to transition from such desks to fighters.
However, they're not abandoning ideas about using trainer aircraft for strike roles, especially to backup the rest of the fleet they'll just seek different weapons now. These could include European air-to-air missiles ASRAAM and IRIS-T, or even air-to-ground Brimstone.
Defense Express notes the argumentation looks somewhat odd, considering further deliveries will be in the Polish FA-50PL version, which will have fighter functionality with AIM-9 and AIM-120 missiles alongside new radars. This creates some lack of standardization between them.
On the other hand, personnel training is important, especially during combat operations. Therefore, concentrating specifically on this task will allow maintaining specially designated aircraft that can be used for pilot training.
Looking at the context makes everything simpler: the U.S. refused to integrate its AIM-120 air-to-air missiles on the FA-50 Block 20, on which the Polish PL version is based. This, combined with delays on better AESA radars and South Korean corruption, creates additional costs and pushes delivery dates even further.
Poland finds itself in a situation where questions exist about American missiles and new aircraft deliveries altogether. So they're choosing not to spend more for now and adapt existing equipment to simpler market solutions. The baseline FA-50GF has the Israeli ELTA ELM-2032 radar used on Indian Tejas Mk1 fighters, but inferior to many modern examples. However, this radar is still newer and faster than the AN/APG-68 installed on F-16C/D Block 50/52.
So if trainer aircraft are shifted to auxiliary roles like drone hunting, their capabilities are most limited precisely in armament. Thats why the decision against upgrading to FA-50PL which may never arrive makes sense, though whether this is final remains unknown.
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