Frag Out! Magazine

"Szczerbiec" 155 mm ammunition in 2010 ("Szczerbiec" is Polish coronation swords, sometimes rendered into English as "the Notched Sword" or "the Jagged Sword", although its blade has straight and smooth edges). The project involved purchasing artillery ammunition to fight infrastructure (APR-P/INFRA) and armored targets (APR-P/ PANC), and laser-guided ammunition (APR-Laser). The first two types were to be selected from the market-available range of ammunition guided by means of inertial navigation and satellite system, with free-falling armor-piercing sub- munitions, produced under a license. APR-Laser, in turn, was supposed to be developed in Poland in cooperation with a foreign partner. In 2012, a project entitled "Development and implementation of a system of 155 mm precision-guided munitions for self-propelled howitzers (Krab, Kryl)" was launched, involving creation of 155 mm precision-guided munitions for gun-howitzers (APR 155). As part of the project, ZM Mesko S.A. signed an agreement of cooperation in the development of 155 mm laser-guided ammunition with Ukrainian SIC "Progress". The cooperation involved also the participation of CRW Telesystem-Mesko and the Military University of Technology. The Ukrainian partner was to develop a projectile based on the Kwitnyk, and the Polish partners – the LPC-1 laser target illuminator. According to the agreement, the Polish partners are to be granted a complete documentation for the projectile and the rights to develop and modernize it further. As for the remaining types of ammunition included in the "Szczerbiec" project, i.e. anti- infrastructure precision-guided munitions with INS/GPS navigation, with a variant designed to fight armored targets – featuring explosively formed sub-projectiles, the acquisition thereof was considered pointless. Both the APR 155 projectile itself, based on the 155 mm Kwitnyk-E, and the said laser target illumination device were developed in the period 2013–2014. There were tests conducted with the use of demonstration APR 155 units with a Ukrainian guidance warhead until the end of the last year, but the serial version of the APR 155 is to come with a "digital" warhead developed by CRW Telesystem-Mesko, featuring a Polish laser beam detection and a processing system to enable the application of NATO STANAG 3733 compliant illuminator. The first fire tests of the partially- Polish APR 155 are scheduled for 2017. If these tests prove successful, the process of production of semi-active laser guided ammunition in Poland may begin within two years. At first, some parts will be imported, but the idea is to make all components in Poland vehicles

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