Defence minister approves blanket order for 1,400 Borsuk infantry vehices

The new vehicles are to replace the obsolete Soviet-produced BMP-1 machines (marked in Poland as BWP-1). The first four Borsuks (borsuk is a Polish word for badger) will be delivered already this year. Apart from the IFVs, the deal includes deliveries of auxiliary vehicles for reconnaissance, command, medical evacuation, technical support, and pollution detection.

At the official ceremony at Huta Stalowa Wola (HSW), Poland's Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak said that the Borsuks deal was just one out many projects the steelworks has been recently entrusted with. He added that an internet portal had dubbed the deal "the largest project in the Polish armament industry in the last 50 years". "And we can call it so, all that we have witnessed moments ago," he said.

He stressed that the HSW was a "powerful brand" producing high-quality, battle-proved weaponry, and that it supplied also the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The MOD chief also informed that Poland's Technical Modernization Council has approved a design for a vehicle heavier than Borsuk, that would include the chassis used in the self-propelled tracked gun-howitzer AHS Krab and the unmanned ZSSW-30 turret used in the original Borsuk. The heavier vehicle is to be delivered to the 18th Mechanized Division which will be equipped with the Abrams tanks.

"I'm counting that very soon the Polish Armed Forces will be equipped with new infantry fighting vehicles," the minister said. "The time of the infantry fighting vehicle used so far by the Polish Army is gone, now the era of BWP Borsuk has come," the minister underscored.

The first four Borsuks are to go already this to the 16th Mechanized Division, whose units are dispatched across the northeastern Poland.

Błaszczak pointed out that the Polish Armed Forces was very swiflty quitting post-Soviet weaponry and moving towards modern armament, compatible with NATO standards. He thanked the designers of the Borsuk and said that the design would revolutionize Polish Army's equipment.

The minister, who is also deputy PM, reminded that "in principle" the Polish government orders weapons from Polish manufacturers and supplies the armament by purchasing military equipment from the USA and South Korea. "It needs to be stressed that those weapons are compatible, interoperable," Błaszczak added.

According to the producer, "Borsuk is able to cross wide water obstacles, has high maneuverability and can be used in various terrain and weather conditions". "The vehicle is designated to transport and protect the crew and infantry soldiers against small arms fire, AT grenade launchers and IEDs," we read at the HSW website.

"Remote-controlled turret system is designed to combat, destroy and suppress enemy light and heavy armoured targets and other objects, including the enemy’s infrastructure, in different climate conditions and to provide fire support for units during combat activities, irrespective of the time of the day," HSW added.