New Polish armour to enter service from 2018

The Polish Land Command is expecting to adopt the first production batch of new vehicles in 2018, the deputy chief of the Armoured and Mechanised Forces Department, Colonel Dariusz Górniak, has indicated.

The army is going to begin the armoured replacement programme in 2014, he added.

Under the plans, the Polish Land Forces are expected to receive around 300 to 500 main battle tanks (MBTs) to replace their 584 T-72s and 232 PT-91 MBTs. The new MBTs are planned to be equipped with a 120 mm main gun.

In addition, Poland intends to procure 1,000-1,500 lighter tracked vehicles to replace the BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) and MT-LB amphibious personnel carrier variants in Polish service. The latter category includes specialised vehicles variants, including: reconnaissance, mortar, command post, repair and recovery and ambulance.

The future tracked IFV will be armed with a 30-40 mm automatic cannon utilising air-burst ammunition. It is planned that the basic version will be amphibious, although up-armoured versions will lose this ability.