Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa SA Air platform office plans and projects
The PGZ-19R short-range tactical reconnaissance system is by far the most advanced unmanned system in the offer of Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa SA. PGZ SA
Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa SA has very ambitious plans for aviation and may soon be associated with at least a few innovative, well-selling products. This will be possible at the expense of the companies of the aviation sector subordinated to it, which will soon be strengthened by new ones - repolonized ones.
Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa SA, which unites almost the entire defense industry of the state, is primarily associated with the production of weapons for the Ground Forces and the Navy. However, it also includes six companies belonging to the broadly understood aviation industry, which are coordinated by the PGZ Aviation Platform Authority. Among them are three military aircraft factories: WZL Nr 1 SA, WZL Nr 2 SA and WZL Nr 4 SA, Central Military Design and Technology Bureau SA, Wytwórnia Hardware Komunikacyjnego “PZL-Kalisz” SA and Tool-Mechanik Sp. z oo These companies are among the most successful companies in the Group, investing heavily in research and development. They implement the extensive capabilities of PGZ SA in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles, helicopters and aircraft. At the moment, it is mainly about maintenance and renewal capabilities, but modernization and production capabilities are also being actively developed.
A project to expand the competencies of the aviation sector by two entities is also moving forward. One of them is an organized part of the current Pratt & Whitney Rzeszów SA, and the other is UTC Aerospace Systems Wrocław Sp. z oo (formerly Hydral). Thanks to the repolonization of these enterprises, the production and repair capacities of aircraft engines and transmissions will increase significantly. In WSK "PZL-Kalisz" SA, these will be, as before, piston engines and their parts, and in Rzeszow - turboshaft engines and gearboxes. In addition, fuel and hydraulic units, as well as gearboxes for aircraft drives, will be built in Wroclaw and Kalisz. An important element pointed out by the Aviation Platform Office is the construction of new strategies for individual companies with a focus on diversifying the production and sale of services in line with the goals set by Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa SA.
Unmanned aerial vehicle systems
BSP systems are products that are in great demand both from the Ministry of Defense and other security services. The Ministry of National Defense is currently awaiting clear statements on which categories of UAVs PGZ SA Capital Group can offer its products, and the most important thing for the Ministry of Defense is the acquisition of specific capabilities, not the promotion of a specific manufacturer. It is more than likely that the Group will be able to offer satisfactory solutions in many areas of interest to the Ministry of National Defense, whether in cooperation with scientific institutions, Polish companies or, at the very least, with the largest platforms, with foreign oligarchs with the greatest possible degree of Polonization of their products.
The PGZ Aviation Platform Office works closely with the Air Force Institute of Technology (ITWL) and the Military Weapons Technology Institute (WITU) in the field of UAV systems. Cooperation in this area is also developing with foreign companies, and we are talking not only about letters of intent. On the contrary: PGZ SA companies already produce components for some of them, incl. for the American company Textron WZL Nr 2 SA produces elements for launchers of the Warden system, and for the Israeli Elbit, the production of composite elements is being prepared at the Demblin branch of WZL Nr 1 SA
PGZ SA participates in all Polish military tenders when it comes to UAV systems. In the Sparrow program, which is intended for the supply of circulating ammunition for the Polish armed forces, cooperation is carried out between PGZ and, on the one hand, WITU, ITWL and WZL Nr 2 SA in the field of the DragonFly system using a multicopter, and on the other hand, with the private company MSP Marcin Szender Polska as part of the Giez platform using a rocket-like fixed wing aircraft. Here the group opted for a two-track variant, offering a mechanized lift for operations in urban areas and an aircraft platform more useful in open areas. In any case, both proposed systems are equipped with the same universal warheads, developed at WITU and manufactured by Belma from Bydgoszcz (PGZ SA), and also used in the UAV system of the WB Warmate group, recently purchased for the Territorial Defense Forces.
PGZ SA is also involved in the relatively inexpensive but suspended Dragonfly program, which should lead to the creation of a multi-rotor reconnaissance ship for the Polish armed forces. The product offered here is the AtraX four-rotor engine developed by ITWL and successfully delivered to customers in Poland (Air Force Academy, Polska Spółka Gazownictwa) and abroad (North Africa). Until now, this system has been created in several copies and produced by ITWL, but in the case of larger orders with the Ministry of National Defense, and such are expected, it is planned to purchase a license from PGZ SA and place production, mainly in WZL No. 2 SA, in which The competence center operates unmanned aerial vehicles.
ITWL also provides a solution for a mini UAV procedure (Wizjer program) using a fixed wing aircraft. The NeoX system developed there is electronically compatible with AtraX and has also been sold to WSOSP. PGZ SA also intends to obtain a license for this system and submit it to a tender prepared by the Ministry of National Defense. It will not be easy to satisfy the customer, because the technical requirements of the Ministry of Defense are very high here, while maintaining a relatively low price per unit. However, there are dozens of reconnaissance kits.
A much more perfect solution is the PGZ-19R system proposed as part of the Orlik PMT, i.e. short-range tactical reconnaissance system. Here, PGZ SA already has its own mature product developed over several years based on the E-310 technology demonstrator. The proposed PGZ-19R system had to meet the very high requirements of the Polish armed forces, and for this a thorough reconstruction of the structure was carried out: the fuselage, wings, control system, integrated payload and power plant.
