Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1086092
means that the Polish mechanized brigades have 8 times less means to fight armored vehicles than the Americans. We have not much to boast about compared to Russians either. Russian units have 12 self-propelled Shturm ATGM systems and 27 Metises (a total of 39 launchers) at their regular disposal. Their additional reinforcement is the 120 BMP-2s, each featuring a mod- ern 9M111 Fagot or 9M113 Konkurs ATGM system (or a modernized version thereof – 9M111M and 9M113M). Some units have BMP-3s instead of BMP-2s, but their armor-piercing weapons are even less effective in combating modern tanks than the modernized Fagots and Konkurses. But it also happens that Russia's anti-tank defenses don't have the said support because many units of the Southern, Central, and Far Eastern Military Districts use not BMP-1/2s, but MT-LBs or BTR-82As and BTR-80s. But this doesn't change the fact that Rus- sians have almost 160 regular launchers in their "first-line" brigades. Sure – they're no match even to Javelins or Spikes, but then again, there are over 9 times more of them than in the Polish brigades. Not counting our lovely Malyutkas, of course. A real treat to historical reenactors. The only hope lies in the accumulation of ATGMs in the 25th Air Cavalry Brigade and the 6th Airborne Brigade – 81 Spikes per brigade sounds reasonable. Unfortunately, the quoted numbers mean that there will be 102 Spike launchers left for the rest of the Polish Armed Forces. And we know the consequences of such a situ- ation. This means that our armed forces have way too few Spikes, not to mention the lack of their versions integrated with Rosomaks (but we're not talking about the "Spike buses" here). There's also an open secret regarding the high number of defects found in Spikes manufac- tured in Poland – the defect rate in the missiles imported from Israel was below 3.5%, and the average for the batches produced in Poland is 14%, but there are batches that reach a 16–20% defect rate during shooting, with some cases of missiles missing the target. The issue is a bone of contention between the manufacturer and the army. While the not-too-impressive quantity of Spikes at our disposal may cause serious concern, it's hard to deny that they are one of the three best ATGMs in the world (sharing the podium with the French MMP and the slightly overrated Javelin). The armor-piercing measures used at the platoon level are a real joke, though. Here, nothing has changed virtually since the 1970s: neither in terms of the quality nor in terms of the number of the available types of weapons. Research institutes have made a couple of interesting proposals (e.g. the Neon program), the industry has spoken of Polonizing foreign designs, but the Polish Armed Forces remain surprisingly oblivious to the issue, pretending there's no problem to deal with (or acting all like "alright, we do have a problem, but it's not as serious as other stuff"). What can be done? To put it euphemistically – the situation is bad. But what could be done to make it good? Paradoxically, the solution that comes first to mind doesn't have to be the right one. Logic would suggest buying fur- ther Spike launchers and an additional light ATGM system – cheaper and less advanced, but capable of fighting armored targets as well – see: the Pirat program. It would be also possible to acquire a tank destroyer – a rocket-type or an artillery-type one – such a program (Barakuda) has been already discussed at MND. Plus, a purchase of special grenade launchers such as the RGW-110 or the NLAW, or light ATGMs such as the Spike-SR. Sounds logical even apart from the deal LAND FORCES