Zitat:Warsaw’s Generals Are Fed Up With Poland’s Ted Cruz

Five senior Polish generals resigned this month in a major and abrupt shakeup along NATO’s eastern flank. That is nearly a quarter of Poland’s general staff, according to the Gazeta newspaper. It may be the biggest shakeup of the country’s senior military leadership since the end of the Cold War.

Zitat:The Polish government is planning to spend up to 80 billion zloty (US $21 billion) to replace its military’s Soviet-designed BWP-1 and BWP-2 infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) with new tracked vehicles, Deputy Defense Minister Bartosz Kownacki told local news agency PAP.

“This is a major undertaking for the next dozen years which, according to various estimates, will generate a cost of between 20 and 80 billion zloty if we decide to acquire two types of infantry fighting vehicles, lighter and heavier units,” Kownacki said.

According to the deputy defense minister, the government is considering various partnerships on the project. This includes launching a joint procurement with the neighboring Czech Republic, as well as using the license for South Korea’s K9 chassis, which was acquired by Polish manufacturer Huta Stalowa Wola for its ASM Krab 155mm self-propelled howitzer.

The BWP-1 and BWP-2 are locally built variants of the Soviet BMP-1 and BMP-2 vehicles. Currently, the Polish land forces operate more than 1,000 units of the two IFVs.

Poland has intensified efforts to replace its predominantly Soviet-designed military gear following Moscow’s intervention in neighboring Ukraine and Russia’s takeover of the Crimean peninsula.

Quintus Fabius schrieb:Gerüchten zufolge ist man auch am K-21 der Südkoreaner für einen Lizenzbau interessiert.

Zitat: First rendering from OBRUM's Borsuk IFV design released
A computer-generated rendering of the current stage of the Borsuk infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) development has been released by the Polish state-owned OBRUM. The Borsuk will replace the BWP-1, which happens to be the local designation for the Soviet BMP-1.

Zitat:The vehicle is fitted with the ZSSW-30 turret from HSW. This is equipped with a Mk 44 Bushmaster II autocannon from Alliant Techsystems (ATK), a dual-missile launcher (probably designed for Spike-LR, which is already operational with the Polish Army), two banks of four smoke grenade launchers each, an independent commander's sight located on the roof and the GOC-1 Nike gunner's sight from the Polish company PCO on the left of the gun (hidden behind an armored cover when not in use). A co-axial UKM-2000C machine gun is also installed.
The Mk 44 Bushmaster II gun is an electrical driven chain gun, usually chambered in 30 x 173 mm. There is however an option to swap barrels for a 40 x 180 mm "Super Forty" supershot round with enhanced penetration (by 30% according to older presentations from the development) and payload.

Zitat:The GOC-1 Nike sight for the gunner incorporates a Polish thermal imager, a set of color cameras and an eyesafe laserrangefinder. The commander is provided with a GOD-1 Iris sight from PCO, incorporating a thermal imager, a daylight camera and a laser rangefinder. The Janus sight is also protected by an armored cover at the sides and rear.
The turret has been criticized by Polish defence magazines due to ATK Bushmaster II gun is incompatible with programmable ammunition from other manufacturers (such as Rheinmetall) and the Spike missile integration being still work-in-progress.

The vehicle in this configurations will be rather light and is meant to be amphibious. Indicators for this are the rubber band tracks and the water blades. Unlike on most amphibious vehicles, the splash guard seems to be mounted at the lower hull front and probably will be elevated before amphibious operations. The drivetrain includes six roadwheels and two return rollers per side. Like most IFVs the Borsuk will have a front mounted engine.

Zitat:The current configuration of the Borsuk hull is a lot less than ideal. The driver is only provided with one single sight block, while the commander has two smaller sight blocks. Aside of the gunner's sight in the ZSSW-30 turret, the gunner has no other means of observation. This means that the visibility for the driver, commander and gunner is limited; specifically the driver seems to have an unnecessarily small field of view. While cameras and digitial optronics (like the gunner's and commander's sight) can increase the visibility, the problem withsuch optics is that they are not fail proof (once the power delivery is gone, they won't work) and easier to damage than conventional armor glass/transparent ceramic vision blocks.

Nightwatch schrieb:Warum sollte sich ausgerechnet Polen auf die russlandfreundliche Deutsche Linie begeben?

Zitat:Since Russia moved into Ukraine, these groups have seen membership triple to about 80,000. By comparison, the Polish Armed Forces are 120,000 soldiers strong.

Zitat:Polen vereidigt erste Mitglieder von neuer Miliz

Polen hat die ersten Mitglieder der unter der Regierung der nationalkonservativen Partei Recht und Gerechtigkeit (PiS) eingeführten Freiwilligenmiliz vereidigt. Es sei ein symbolischer Start, der Polens Armee neu formiere, sagte Verteidigungsminister Antoni Macierewicz heute bei den Feierlichkeiten im ostpolnischen Bialystok. [...]

Bis 2019 sollen die paramilitärischen Truppen rund 50.000 Mann umfassen. Die Freiwilligen durchlaufen eine 16-tägige Grundausbildung, militärische Vorerfahrungen haben sie nicht. [...] Die ersten drei von 17 Brigaden sollen an der östlichen Grenze Polens entstehen. Seit Ausbruch der Ukraine-Krise fürchtet das Land eine Bedrohung durch Russland. Die Zivilisten erhalten für ihren Einsatz monatlich umgerechnet 125 Euro. Regierungskritiker bemängeln, die Kosten würden zulasten der Modernisierung der polnischen Armee gehen.

Zitat:Poland to spend $55 billion more on defense amid Russia fears

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland will allocate an additional 200 billion zlotys ($55 billion) on defense over the next 15 years to modernize its army amid signs of growing aggression from Russia, a deputy defense minister said. [...] NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg will visit Poland on Thursday and Friday to check on deployment of U.S. troops in the east of the country and to meet Polish, Romanian and Turkish government officials.

Poland, alarmed by what it sees as Russia's assertiveness on NATO's eastern flank, has lobbied hard for the stationing of NATO troops on its soil, especially since Moscow's annexation of Crimea in 2014. [...] The Polish government agreed in June to raise defense spending gradually from 2 pct to 2.5 percent of GDP. This means that annual spending would nearly double to about 80 billion zlotys by 2032.