New Polish Tank – Meanwhile, the deliveries of the modified Leopard 2PL MBTs have been delayed, multiple times. This is one of the reasons for the annexation of the agreement that so far, happened five times. The last annex, dating back to December 2019, covering the resulting overhauls, increases the total value of the deal to PLN 3.29 bn. The first 12 examples of upgraded MBTs were delivered in 2020. Another 13 were commissioned last year, including one example of the latest Leopard 2PLM1 variant.
As the head of the Polish MoD, Mariusz Błaszczak announced, the first Polish troops were sent to the US, to receive Abrams MBT training. Noteworthy, Poland is yet to obtain official DC approval of the acquisition of those MBTs via FMS. The relevant request has already been filed
New Polish Tank
Deliveries are to begin this year, with 28 tanks to be procured to the country’s armed forces. In addition to the tanks, the contract also comprises a technical support and logistics package, as well as training and ammunition for the tanks, according to the ministry.
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The U.S. Army’s 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division was the first unit to receive M1A2 SEPv3 tanks in 2020, so the tank is brand new. The first Polish tanks will arrive in 2022, before many U.S. Army units will receive the SEPv3.
The M1 Abrams main battle tank—a clean-sheet design equipped with a 105-millimeter main gun, Chobham composite armor, and gas turbine engine—debuted in 1981 as the most advanced tank of its kind. The tank has outlived several efforts to replace it, gaining upgrades like a larger, more powerful 120-millimeter gun; a layer of depleted uranium armor; a digital command and control system; and a separate “hunter-killer” thermal imaging viewer for the tank commander.
According to information that PGZ shared with us, another example of this MBT (from the last year’s lot) is currently undergoing hand-off procedures. The plans for 2022 assume that 24 examples would be delivered in total, including 23 2PLM1 MBTs. The above means that by the end of the year, 49 Leopard 2PL MBTs would remain in service, including 24 Leopard 2PLM1s. The information that had been released in the past suggests that the agreement, with its annexes, envisages the delivery of 142 MBTs, and it is to be finalized by July 2023. However, most probably the term in question would be extended.
The Technical Modernization Plan also includes the Wilk new generation MBT procurement programme, separate from the Abrams acquisition, defined as an urgent operational requirement. The assumption is that the Wilk programme would involve the Polish industry to a great extent.
Delivery of several types of MBTs for the Polish Armed Forces is planned to happen in 2022. This refers to the continued modification of the T-72M/M1 MBTs (referred to as the T-72M1R upgrade), and the Leopard 2A4 MBT upgrade, to the Leopard 2PL standard. We have managed to obtain information on the current status of deliveries and hand-offs, and on the current plans within that scope.
Polish defense officials have said the acquisition will enable the country’s military to counter Russia’s flagship T-14 Armata tank. The procurement will allow Warsaw to replace its outdated Soviet-designed T-72 and PT-91 tanks with a new tracked vehicle platform. The Polish land forces also operate Leopard 2A4 and Leopard 2A5 tanks acquired from Germany.
Poland will purchase 250 M1A2 Abrams SEPv3 main battle tanks from the U.S., replacing older tanks dating back to the Cold War. The tanks will arm Polish Army units guarding against incursions by the Russian Army.
At that time, when asked about the potential purchase, a spokesperson for the Defence Ministry told Defense News the ministry had identified “the necessity to provide [Polish] armored military units with modern tanks that would comply with the requirements of the modern battlefield,” and it was working to “define the possibilities of securing these capacities based on the available technical solutions that are proposed [to Poland] by potential suppliers.”
The forthcoming acquisition is to allow Warsaw to replace its outdated Soviet-designed T-72 and PT-91 tanks with a new tracked vehicle platform. Under the plan, the designed contract is to include logistics, training and simulators for Polish troops.
The idea that a 40-year-old tank design has a place in modern armies is a relatively new one. For comparison, in 1981, the 40-year-old M4 Sherman medium tank was thoroughly obsolete. The Abrams’s basic design, however, has remained robust enough to accept new technologies as engineers develop them.
While the Leopard 2s are reasonably new, the T-72M1 and PT-91 tanks are obsolete by modern standards and thus need to be replaced. The addition of 250 Abrams will soon give Poland one of the most powerful tank forces in Europe.
Deputy PM, Jarosław Kaczyński, during his visit at the HQ of the 1st Armoured Brigade in Wesoła announced that large-scale modernization of the Polish Armed Forces has been planned, involving extra instruments that would be used for the purpose of financing. The procurement of the M1A2 SEP v3 Abrams MBTs shall be treated as “a kind of a pilot programme”. Work on relevant statutory regulations has already been initiated.
The latest version of the M1, the M1A2 SEPv3, adds a remotely operated .50-caliber machine gun, improved protection from remote-controlled roadside bombs, and an ammunition data link that allows the tank crew to issue specialized commands to main gun rounds. The 73.6-ton tank has a crew of four and can go 42 miles on a road and 30 miles per hour cross-country.
Wesoła is a district of Poland’s capital Warsaw and is home to the 1st Warsaw Armored Brigade. The brigade is equipped with the Leopard 2A4 and Leopard 2A5 tanks which are currently the most modern tracked vehicles operated by the Polish Land Forces.
On March 26, during President Joe Biden’s official visit to Warsaw, Polish President Andrzej Duda said he had asked his U.S. counterpart “to accelerate, as much as possible, the acquisition programs that are currently being carried out.”
“So we are ordering the most modern tanks. Tanks available in the best equipped version, tanks that are combat proven, tanks which were constructed to counter the most modern Russian T-14 Armata tanks,” Mariusz Błaszczak said during a military ceremony in Wesoła, as quoted in a statement.
Poland belonged to the Soviet-backed Warsaw Pact from 1954 to 1991. The Polish Army operated the Soviet-designed T-72M1 main battle tank, and then the T-72 based PT-91 tank. The service also maintains about 250 German-made Leopard 2 A4 and A5 main battle tanks.
So far, no other country has a weapon such as the proposed Polish tank destroyer. The U.S. Army disbanded its tank destroyer units at the end of the Cold War, and even the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter can only carry a maximum of 16 Hellfire anti-tank missiles. Apache helicopters are also more or less limited to line of sight attacks.
Both the T-72, as well as the Leopard 2A4 MBTs are operated by some of the Polish Army tank battalions. ZM Bumar-Łabędy S.A. and other PGZ Group companies are currently working on the aforesaid MBTs. Modification of the T-72 MBTs is being completed based on an agreement signed in July 2019, by and between the consortium formed by ZM Bumar-Łabędy and WZM S.A., and the 1st Regional Logistics Base in Wałcz, with a total value of PLN 1.749 bn. Based on the aforesaid agreement, general overhaul and limited modification of the MBTs is to take place. The agreement is a result-based one. The quantity of MBTs involved depends on the value of workload. It was assumed that 230 MBTs would be overhauled and modified, optional modification of another 88 examples has been envisaged.
M1A2 SEP v3 Abrams is another type of MBT that may potentially be received by the Polish Armed Forces. Procurement of 250 MBTs as such was requested by Poland, via FMS, in July last year. The Polish Ministry of Defence and the General Command were declaring that the first 28 examples could be delivered by the end of this year. To make it possible, it would be necessary to negotiate transaction approval via the State Department, and Congress. The agreement also needs to be negotiated and concluded for this to happen. This short delivery term would probably mean that Poland is to receive some of the vehicles belonging to the US Army production lots.
The new Polish tank killer is a collaboration between Polish PZG Companies and European (mostly UK) MBDA. Concept art shows the system mounted on a Cold War-era BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle chassis with a box launcher holding 12 Brimstone missiles. The vehicle is also equipped with an American .50-caliber heavy machine gun mounted in a remote weapons turret.
If Brimstone proves just 90 percent effective (MBDA itself claims 98.7 percent effectiveness in combat) a Brimstone strike could destroy 22 out of 50 tanks and armored fighting vehicles in a Russian battalion tactical group (BTG). That’s enough to render the unit combat ineffective. Two crippled BTGs will render the parent unit, a Russian tank brigade, incapable of offensive combat.
The Leopard 2PL upgrade includes extra modular armor for the turret and new sights (including KLW-1 Asteria thermal imaging systems for the gunner, and the commander). The gun and the fire control system have been modified to accommodate modern ammunition – the DM63A1 anti-tank rounds, and the DM11 programmable HE rounds. Electric motors for the turret and the gun has also been integrated, replacing the old hydraulic solution. This entailed the necessity to implement an APU, and redesign the electrical system within the tank. Ultimately, the communication systems of the said MBTs would also be modified.
Leopard 2 upgrade, meanwhile, is a result of an agreement signed back in December 2015, by and between a consortium formed by the PGZ Group, ZM “Bumar-Łabędy” S.A., and the Armament Inspectorate of the Polish Ministry of Defence. The baseline value of that contract is defined as PLN 2.4 bn. The upgrade program in question also involves other Polish defence industry companies, while Rheinmetall acts as the foreign partner. As a result of the signing of an annex to the aforesaid agreement, worth PLN 300 million, back in July 2018, the works undertaken are to involve another 14 MBTs. This means that all 142 Leopard 2A4 MBTs operated by the Polish Army would be modernized. The contract also includes extra functionalities for the variant designated as Leopard 2PLM1.
Recently, Poland issued a requirement for a new tank destroyer vehicle. Tank destroyers are armored vehicles designed with firepower and mobility in mind, meant to quickly take up positions ahead of enemy tank columns and decimate them with long-range guns or missiles. Although sometimes similar to tanks in appearance, tank destroyers sacrifice armor for the ability to quickly plug holes in friendly anti-tank defenses.
Brimstone is a medium range air-to-surface missile system developed by the U.K. The missile looks similar to the American Hellfire anti-tank missile but differs in key ways. Like Hellfire, Brimstone uses a millimetric wave radar seeker to locate and identify armor. This gives the new Polish tank destroyer the ability to engage enemy tanks at ranges of up to 12 kilometers (or about 7.45 miles).
Poland is a country sandwiched between military giants. In World War II, the country was invaded by both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, and was pushed into joining the Warsaw Pact for the duration of the Cold War. Today Poland forms a major part of NATO’s eastern flank and is vulnerable to Russia’s ground forces, particularly Moscow’s large fleet of main battle tanks.
A new tank destroyer concept, built for the Polish Army, could become the most effective tank killer in any army. The unnamed vehicle is armed with up to 24 Brimstone anti-tank missiles and can unleash a salvo of tank-hunting missiles, knocking out enemy tank units it can’t actually see.
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Emma Nehls is a military writer and historian with a passion for exploring the intricacies of warfare and the human experience within the military. With extensive knowledge and a deep understanding of military strategy, tactics, and historical contexts, Nehls brings a unique perspective to his writings.
