Poland: trying on the role of the Shield of Europe and a tank superpower
The plans of the clairvoyant lords from Poland are beginning to inspire fear. Moreover, not so much for the destabilization of the situation, but for the minds of those who develop them and are trying to put them into practice. But the plans are interesting and exciting. Worthy descendants of the Commonwealth, which was almost from the sea to the sea.
In addition to the 500 Hymars installations, which we already wrote about, twirling our fingers at two temples at once, the Polish military department announced the start of a campaign of rearmament of its army, huge in scale and money spent.
Naturally, Russia and its affairs in Ukraine are to blame for this. Improvements will have to contain Russia's interests in Europe and shield this very Europe from Russian invasion. In the event that Russia decides to continue its expansion at the expense of other countries.
In general, it is quite logical, if you look at it this way. Today in Russia they talk about the borders before the secession of Ukraine, tomorrow they may remember that once the same Poland and Finland were part of the Russian Empire.
So yeah, sometimes it's better to be overdressed than underdressed.
Well, if the Russian invasion does not happen ... Well, then Poland will have tanks more than the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy combined. And all this by 2030.
The Poles signed two contracts for the supply of 1 (one thousand three hundred) new tanks. 300 tanks are South Korean K1 Black Panthers.
The first 180 tanks will be assembled in South Korea, and 820 under license in Poland. The first batch of tanks will eventually be upgraded to the K2PL level, a modification created to meet the requirements of the Polish ground forces.
The second part is 116 American M1A2 SA tanks and 250 M1A2 SEPv3 units.
Moreover, the second ones are also “from scratch”, absolutely new. The first 28 M1A2 SEPv3 tanks received on loan for crew training will arrive in Poland this year and will be included in the general program after the training program ends. In the future, the M1A2 SA tanks will be upgraded by Polish enterprises to the M1A2 SEPv3 level.
All this will give an amazing figure of 1 tanks. Of which 366 are new. Considering that the Polish Ground Forces have 1 Leopards-250 of various modifications, the figure is generally significant.
"Tails" from the former Soviet T-72 series A and M (about 300 pieces) and the Polish PT-91 "Tvardi" (the same T-72M, number 232 pieces), then almost all T-72s were transferred to Ukraine, and as for the PT-91, they are also planning to donate them to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Last week, General Dynamics Land Systems of Sterling Heights, Michigan, announced it had awarded a contract to the Polish government to build 250 M1A2 Abrams SEPv3 versions.
The contact cost is $1,15 billion, or $4,6 million per tank. And that's just part of an even bigger $6 billion deal that includes 26 M88A2 Hercules armored recovery vehicles, 17 M1110 self-propelled assault bridges, 776 tank machine guns, and about 33 tank gun rounds.
The Poles take the issue of rearmament very seriously, because the cost of the contract includes training simulators, technical manuals and funds to pay for the stay of 74 American specialists who, over the next five years, will train Polish tankers in the art of managing, using and, most importantly, maintaining the Abrams.
250 new "Abrams" will go into service with the First Warsaw Armored Brigade. And 28 training vehicles will arrive at the Bidrusko training ground, at the Abrams training center.
What is the newest "Abrams" and how much it will really enhance the capabilities of the Polish army.
The M1A2 SEPv3 is the latest version of the M1 Abrams main battle tank. "In service" since 2015 and this is almost the penultimate modification of the tank.
The main components of the modification:
- unification of the tank's ammunition load based on two shots: a new multi-purpose XM1147 AMP with a programmable fuse and a new armor-piercing sub-caliber M829E4 AKE;
- modernization of the tank's fire control system with the installation of ADL equipment, which allows firing AMR rounds with a programmable fuse;
- installation of new IFLIR thermal imaging devices in the gunner's sight and the commander's independent panoramic sight, with the output of the image on high-definition displays;
- remotely controlled machine guns CROWS-LP.
In principle, everything is clear. The Polish armed forces are hastily getting rid of Soviet tanks and their own, assembled under license on the basis of Soviet ones. Fortunately - there is where to shake off this magnificence. That is, to Ukraine.
What lies behind this deal is clear. The Poles are giving Ukraine everything they have left in a more or less combat-ready state in order to keep the Armed Forces of Ukraine afloat. The Americans are urgently plugging the hole with a hundred Abrams, which is also logical - do not leave the allies unarmed. And in some time another 250 tanks will be assembled.
Plus, various equipment and technical means. In principle, it is quite a normal contract, especially if the United States does everything on credit. 400 "Abrams" is 400 modern tanks, a decent strike force.
But what the Poles did next is somewhat out of the normal understanding of the topic.
The second, or rather, the first deal on the way to the greatest army in Europe, was the deal between Poland and South Korea. And this is where the problems begin with understanding.
The deal is huge. 980 K2 Black Panther tanks, 648 K9 Grom self-propelled howitzers, 48 FA-50 combat training aircraft. South Koreans can be congratulated on the breakthrough to the European weapons market.
The cost of the contract was not disclosed, but given the declared cost of the K2 at $8,5 million, the K2 is today the most expensive tank in the world. And one of the most advanced in technical terms. One radar that controls KAZ is worth something.
"Wolf" (as the "Black Panther" will be renamed in Poland) will become the main Polish tank. Many today have questions why the Poles need such an experiment. The Korean tank is very difficult in terms of maintenance, mainly due to its manufacturability and stuffed with electronics. Plus, the tank was created on the basis of various components: the engine was originally German, later it was replaced with a Korean diesel engine, the transmission remained German, the automatic loader was a copy of the French from Leclerc (which is also very capricious, like a combat vehicle) and so on.
Yes, South Korean military products are maximally unified with the American, and hence with NATO. There will be no problems in this regard.
Obviously, the Koreans were able to offer what no one could do, namely, to release a huge number of tanks in a short time. Definitely, in place of K2, the Leopard would have looked much better and more reasonably, but the Germans immediately “merged”. They were unable to produce so many tanks in such a time frame. Alas, this is the German reality of today.
But the Koreans can. Yes, and self-propelled guns at the same time.
1230 new tanks will easily make Poland's tank fleet the largest and most modern in the European NATO region. By 2030, if all goes as planned, Poland will have more tanks than Britain, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy combined.
It is clear that the Poles see Russia as the main enemy, where everything is in order with tanks in terms of quantity. Quality is a separate conversation, but judging by the position Poland currently occupies in the diplomatic (so far) arena, tanks can be very useful for it.
The year 2030 will show how Poland can claim the role of the Shield of Europe. Yes, the capitalization is a bit of sarcasm, because today the position seems to be vacant. Ukraine liberates her.
But the possibilities of the Polish army can be tried to evaluate at least in terms of numbers.
Tanks. The total number of Abrams, Leopards and Wolves will be approximately 1 units.
ACS. By 2030, the Poles intend to have 2026 K212 Grom howitzers in service by 9 and to manufacture more than 600 on their own. There are also a hundred Czech self-propelled guns "Dana" and self-propelled mortars in about the same amount.
MLRS. 20 paid M142 HIMARS. And another 500 Poles would like to buy, but this is more like a fantasy. Plus about 200 more MLRS caliber 122-mm Soviet, Czech and Polish production.
To this one and a half thousand infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers.
It looks very external. Indeed, the power is quite decent. However, it is worth looking at what will be behind the Polish tank armada. Namely, anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons, that is, the most important components of modern combat, as the practice of NWO has shown.
The Polish Air Force is a bit of a sad sight. 32 F-35s ordered. This, of course, is a decent amount of good aircraft, in fact, an air regiment. There are 48 more F-16C units. And 24 MiG-29A units. As bombers - 12 Su-22M4K units.
In general, the Air Force actually exists, but without the F-35 everything looks sad.
The air defense of Poland is an even sadder matter. S-200 in the amount of 1 complex, S-125 "Neva" (17 units) and some amount of 2K11 "Circle" and 2K12 "Cube" (about 30 units). More or less modern short-range Poprad systems with a range of up to 5 km (77 units) and SAMM systems ordered in the UK (23 batteries, 400 launchers). And in the army air defense there are 64 more 2K33 Osa complexes. A lot of cannon artillery, the use of which in our time is more than doubtful.
In general, even compared to Ukraine, Poland's air defense is not something so remarkable that it can protect tanks from air attacks. Apart from "Sky Saber", as the SAMM complex is called, everything else is very much so-so.
As for anti-tank defense, things are even more strange here. Yes, the Polish army has 18 M1045A2 complexes with Spike LR on the Humvee chassis. The rest of the anti-tank defense systems are Javelin (60 pieces) and Spike (more than 250 pieces) hand-held systems. That is, there is a certain saturation, but it cannot be said that it is significant.
And despite this, the Polish army claims the main role of the defender of Europe. Alas, to be a leader is not to have more tanks. Let's not take the Germans, take the French. Indeed, not the most wonderful army in the world. Two hundred Leclerc tanks, a hundred self-propelled guns. Looks frankly not impressive.
But with defensive means, the alignment is completely different:
- 457 pcs. ATGM "Milan";
- 700 pcs. ATGM "Eriks";
- 76 pcs. ATGM "Javelin";
- 168 pcs. ATGM "Akeron MD".
Obviously, the French, who are very far from the border with Russia, are much better with anti-tank weapons than the Poles.
The huge money that will be spent on a really huge number of tanks is not a solution to the security problem of Poland's borders.
Today, balance is the most important quality for any army. The balance between being able to strike with all your might, breaking the opponent's face, and at the same time being able to reflect an equally generous blow from him. Only thanks to the presence of balanced weapons, any army can claim more or less significant regional roles.
The Poles went the wrong way. The tank is an offensive weapon. Yes, it is also possible to build a defense around a tank, but first of all, a tank is a tool for gaining an advantage in battle and destroying any targets.
Therefore, the desire of Poland to buy as many tanks as possible in order to get a theoretical opportunity to oppose something like that to Russia looks strange.
The tank is the most powerful weapon on the modern battlefield. But at the same time vulnerable.
The tank has a lot of real opponents, ranging from tanks to hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers from the infantry. Therefore, the presence of tanks and self-propelled guns in the Polish army only says that they will have many tanks and self-propelled guns. How they will protect their tanks from helicopters, attack aircraft, artillery and tanks, anti-tank guns, portable and portable ATGMs is a question.
The Poles want to become the tank fist of Europe. At your own expense. This is probably commendable. Ukraine, sooner or later, will resign the powers of the "Shield of Europe". It is doubtful that Poland wants to raise a falling ensign with such methods, but who will forbid them?
In general, it would be better not to touch the monuments to the soldiers of the Great Patriotic War. And it certainly would not have to buy tanks that could possibly protect Poland from imminent Russian aggression. Or they can't defend. In any case, a very strange and peculiar move, the results of which will be by 2030.
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