11 September 2020

MSPO 2020: Defence exhibition in the time of Covid-19

by Jakub Link-Lenczowski

The International Defence Industry Exhibition MSPO was held in Kielce, Poland, on 8–10 September, in a limited format because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Owing to global restrictions, it was primarily a national even, focusing on the Polish Armed Forces’ modernisation programme.

Only some the biggest foreign players exhibited, including Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Bell, MBDA, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Hyundai Rotem, Leonardo, and Raytheon. As usual, the largest Polish company present was state-owned Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa (PGZ) with its subsidiaries. The second-largest Polish company, WB Group, decided not to attend MSPO.

Owing to pandemic restrictions, most participants did not display large weapon systems as they had in previous years. The outdoor display was mostly prepared by the Polish Armed Forces and the US Army.

The key topics discussed during MSPO were short-range air defence (Narew programme), the Polish Armed Forces’ helicopter replacement (Perkoz multirole, Kondor naval, and Kruk attack helicopters), land forces capabilities such as the new tank destroyer (Ottokar-Brzoza programme), and the future main battle tank (MBT) to be developed under the Wilk programme.

MBDA showed its CAMM launcher for Poland’s Narew programme at MSPO 2020. (Jakub Link-Lenczowski)

The International Defence Industry Exhibition MSPO was held in Kielce, Poland, on 8–10 September, in...

Jane's Find unrivaled intelligence, consultancy and advertising solutions to the defence and national security sectors.