6 thousand grenade launchers, planes, ships. Yes, Poland cooperates with the Swedish arms industry
March has become an important month in the history of Polish-Swedish contacts between defense industries and the armed forces. Certainly, the key moment was Sweden's formal accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, but in the shadow of this industrial cooperation is still developing, which (contrary to some comments) benefits both countries and their armed forces.
In terms of arms agreements, March was important for two reasons.
On March 4, during the meeting of the defense ministers of both countries in Gdynia, a huge contract was signed for Poland to purchase Carl-Gustaf M4 universal grenade launchers manufactured by Saab.
This is the largest contract in years (if not in the history of the program to date), with a value of approximately PLN 5 billion.
As part of it, the Armament Agency ordered over 6,000 pieces of grenade launchers along with a rich package of additional accessories (including advanced sights) and a large number of ammunition of various types – anti-tank, high-explosive, anti-tank and high-explosive, high-explosive, multi-functional, smoke, illuminating, training. , training and practice. As the Ministry of National Defense put it, the number is “several hundred thousand”.
The deliveries are to be made in the years 2024-27 and current announcements do not indicate that the Polish side will require an offset. The above weapon will be delivered to Polish Army units, where it will replace the old RPG-7 anti-tank grenade launchers dating back to the communist period.
These will not be the first Carl-Gustaf grenade launchers in the Polish Army. A small batch was purchased in the first half of the 1990s. Initially, they were sent to the Vistula Military Units, and after their disbandment – to elite units (25th Air Cavalry Brigade and GROM).
The new weapon will constitute another element of the program for modernization and expansion of the potential of the Polish Army in terms of the ability of infantry units to combat land targets. In recent years, for this purpose, Israeli Rafael Spike anti-tank guided missiles (along with a license to produce them), a small batch of FGM-148 Javelin (which will now be delivered to the Territorial Defense Forces) and Nammo M72 disposable grenade launchers, delivered from Norway, were purchased.
