With the latest radars, our army will be able to detect air threats hundreds of kilometers from the borders, then follow them, and then, utilizing a network-centric command system, choose which weapon best to destruct them. Today, only the US and Israel have an air defence strategy with akin capabilities.
Air defense, understood as the ability to combat all types of aerial assault measures of the opponent, from aircraft, helicopters, and drones starting on ballistic and maneuvering rockets, is simply a complex mechanics of connected vessels. No country can say that it has a comprehensive air defence strategy if it does not have the appropriate tools to first detect air targets, then track and at the end effectively and rapidly destroy.
During the past decade, the Polish Armed Forces have made a real revolution in this area. From an army which did not have a weapon capable of combating the enemy's maneuvering and ballistic missiles, and in the case of aircraft with only modern weapons of very short range, the Polish military became a top man. It implements the state-of-the-art and most comprehensive air defence strategy in Europe, which is based on advanced missile, radio-location and command support and combat management systems.
Pilica, Pilica plus, small Narew, Narew, Vistula. Today, the names of fresh weapons systems, which have been in service for respective years now, are easy cited. How easy it is to emphasize that they will be managed by innovative, network-centric IBCS command system (Integrated conflict Command System), which powered by data from all available radio-location means will let to destruct targets with the best effector. How easy it is to forget that the road to success was occupied by large difficulties, as we are faced with the most difficult, most costly modernisation challenge our military faced after 1989.
Difficult Beginnings
Currently, after Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine and regular air strikes information not only on military infrastructure, but besides on civilian facilities, most NATO states have launched (or importantly accelerated those already in operation for years) their national modernization programs on anti-aircraft and anti-missile capabilities. That's not all. A group of European countries, led by Germany, wants to build together Multi-national air defence system, inviting Poland to participate.
Few people present remember that 15 years ago, erstwhile our country announced that it wanted to modernize its air defenses on its own, a small later calling the task Polish shield, many politicians of our Western allies have asked publically if this is surely a cost. They argued that yes, anti-aircraft and anti-missile weapons that are available to individual NATO countries in Europe must be upgraded, but there is no rush due to the fact that Russia does not endanger members of the Alliance.
Anti-aircraft museum
Looking back, 1 can only be glad that these voices have not been listened to over the Vistula River and despite the different visions of the successive heads of the Ministry of Defence as to how we should build the fresh air defence strategy of the country, the directional decisions – that we must have it comparatively rapidly – have not changed. However, we must honestly admit that we had small choice, as 15 to 20 years ago the possible of native anti-aircraft troops against the background of our allies could be defined briefly – a technological museum.
Theoretically, we had nothing to be ashamed of. The core of the native OPL was then created by 3 anti-aircraft regiments and 1 air defence rocket brigade, which means rather a large structural potential. But his equipment was worse. The primary weapons of the native OPL units were anti-aircraft 9K33M2/M3 Osa, 2K12 Kub, portable anti-aircraft rocket kits Arrow-2M and Thunder, 23-millimeter anti-aircraft guns ZU-23-2, artillery-racite kits ZUR-23-2KG and ZSU-23-4MP White, S-125 Newa rocket kits, and 1 S-200WE Vega anti-aircraft rocket kit. All these weapons systems came from technological solutions from the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The Ministry of National Defence and the General Staff of the Polish Army, aware of the backward technological weapons of Polish anti-aircraft defence, planned to phase it out of service – the Vega set in 2015, Newa sets in 2019, Cuba in 2022, and Os until the end of 2026.
Polish shield
According to the method modernisation plan, the withdrawn equipment and weapons were to be replaced by fresh solutions. It was planned that the Polish Shield would consist of 3 essential subsystems besides called layers: very short range, alleged VSHORAD (Very Short scope Air Defense), short range, alleged SHORAD (Short scope Air Defense), and average range, alleged MRAD (Medium scope Air Defense).
VSHORAD was to be armed with rocket-artillery Pilica, self-propelled rocket kits Poprad and hand-held Grom/Piorun missiles, i.e. weapons with a scope of about 5–6 km. SHORAD planned rocket kits about 25 km in range, which received the codename ‘Narew’. The last of the layers, which is MRAD, was to be based on anti-aircraft and anti-missile launchers about 100 km in range, which received the code name ‘Wisła’.
Layer construction
Although plans from the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century predicted that by 2022 all layers of Polish Shields would scope operational capacity, erstwhile it came to making circumstantial purchasing decisions, difficulties began to pile up. From financial (each layer was expected to cost billions of PLN), through bureaucratic – protracted procedures and changes in regulations, to geopolitical – selection of abroad partner in a given project./
The quickest solution was to solve difficulties in the layer, which was expected to be 100% based on national solutions, or VSHORAD.
In December 2015, a contract was signed for transportation by the end of 2021 of 79 self-propelled anti-aircraft rocket kits (SPP) Poprad, in November 2016 – for six batteries of the Pilic missile-artillery system, and in December 2016 – for the transportation of 1,3 1000 Lightning rockets and 420 launchers. In this way, by the end of 2016, orders for weapons for the lowest layer of Polish Shield were completed.
Unfortunately, much more time was needed for higher layers. According to the first plans, Poland wanted to buy 8 rocket batteries for MRAD. Finally, it was decided to divide the Vistula programme into 2 phases. The contract for 2 batteries was signed in March 2018, 5 years after the start of the analytical and conceptual phase. The reason for the hold was the doubts of decision-makers in our army about how to complete this weaponry strategy – the kind of rockets, the kind of radar, the command strategy were argued. At the end of the day, Poland decided to buy American patriots in the completion of the non-market, i.e. not only with new, only developed radar around, but besides with the R & D strategy of command.
To sign the contract for the second phase of the Vistula, i.e. purchase of six more patriot batteries, came the SZRP to wait another 5 years, until September 2023. The agreement provides that the first 2 batteries will be delivered to the units from 2026 to 1927, and all supplies are to be completed by the end of 2029.
At the latest, due to the fact that only in September 2021, a framework agreement was signed for the mediate layer of the Polish Shield, or SHORAD (in the meantime, the Ministry of Defence ceased to usage the existing name to find the fresh Multi-layer Anti-aircraft and Anti-missile defence System). In order to justify the fact that Narew had been awarded a contract so many years after the launch of the task of comprehensive modernization of the native OPL, it should be explained here that its anti-missile capabilities have long been considered. Moreover, due to the number of batteries and missiles and different types of radar, this will be the most costly layer of the fresh country's air defence system. Importantly, the western partner is only expected to deliver missiles.
In April 2022, due to Russia's aggression into Ukraine, MON decided to velocity up “Narwi”, resulting in a contract for a fast – inactive in 2022 – supply of 2 battery bridge solution, i.e. Little Narva. This strategy was to consist of rocket kits armed with CAMM missiles with a scope of 25 km, with radars to be exchanged for newer solutions in a fewer years.
The implementation agreement for the mark Narew systems was signed during last year's global Defence manufacture Salon in Kielce. It assumes transportation by the end of 2035 of 138 launchers along with about a 1000 CAMM-ER missiles produced in Poland.
Technological breakthrough
Although ambitious plans from a decade ago, assuming that the fresh air defence strategy of the country would be created by 2022, unfortunately failed to implement, the SZRP inactive has reason to be proud. The emerging – due to the fact that we are only waiting for the implementation of the contracts already signed – the solution is simply a trampoline for our army to modernize both in terms of the technology introduced and the capabilities gained by the Polish military.
With the latest radars, our army will be able to detect air threats hundreds of kilometers from the borders, then follow them, and then, utilizing a network-centric command system, choose which weapon best to destruct them. Today, only the US and Israel have an air defence strategy with akin capabilities.
