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Armed Forces

Poland to Select Battlefield Radars by the End of 2019

New radars are to be acquired for the recon elements. Image: 18th Reconnaissance Regiment
New radars are to be acquired for the recon elements. Image: 18th Reconnaissance Regiment

Tendering procedure launched by the Polish MoD, concerning the “battlefield reconnaissance radars” was launched in 2015. The decisive phase of this procurement procedure has just begun. As we have found out, the offer is expected to be selected by the end of the year.

Responding to Defence24.pl’s questions, spokesman for the Armament Inspectorate of the Polish MoD, Major Krzysztof Płatek, told us that currently the final offers are undergoing assessment. Those have been placed by the following contractors, meeting the deadline set on 5th November 2019:

  1. Consortium formed by: KenBIT Koenig i Wspólnicy Sp.J. with ELTA Systems Ltd.
  2. Consortium formed by: WB Electronics S.A. with SRCTec LLC.
  3. Pro Patria Elektronics Kft.

The best offer is to be selected by the end of 2019. 

This means that over the last two months, significant progress was made in case of this procurement. At the beginning of the year the Polish Ministry of Defence claimed that preparations are in progress, with regards to invitations pertaining to the final offers. This invitation has been sent to the bidders who presented their detailed proposals that are currently analyzed by the military.

The procedure concerning the radar procurement began back in 2015. The Polish military is willing to acquire 104 battlefield surveillance radars in total (93 as guaranteed procurement and 11 through optional acquisition). These are to be used by the reconnaissance elements for instance. It was assumed that performance of the guaranteed portion of the order is to be finalized by 2022. Optional procurement would be completed until 2023.

The battlefield surveillance radars should be a part of the reconnaissance system - of both armoured/mechanized units, as well as of artillery elements. ABRA radars used by the Bundeswehr for instance are subordinated to the artillery units. Equipment as such, if used in a correct manner, allows for proper improvement of situational awareness on the battlefield. At the moment the Polish military only has a small quantity of systems as such in its inventory while acquisition of such solution is becoming increasingly more urgent.

There is still one more question that remains to be answered, pertaining to the datalink that would transfer the data from the radars to the weapon systems, allowing for rapidly attacking the targets detected. If voice communications are used here, this may hamper the efficiency of using the data gathered by the radars. One of the solutions used now by the Polish military (namely the rocket/artillery component) that could be used for that purpose is the ZZKO Topaz automated fire control system.

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