Cancer began serving in the army

A support company of the 30th Motorized Rifle Battalion of the Rzeszów Region of the 1st Greater Poland Mechanized Brigade marches in front of those gathered for a ceremony in Miedzyrzecz on June 17.

On June 30, in Miedzyrzecz, where the command of the 17th Wielkopolska Mechanized Brigade is located and some of its units are deployed, an official ceremony was held to receive the first company fire module of 120-mm self-propelled mortars on a Rak wheeled chassis. was carried out.

This is an important day for the 17th brigade, the Polish armed forces and Polish industry, because we are introducing a new type of weapon. This will significantly increase the combat capabilities of our armed forces […] This shows that the Polish army is changing, Rak is another piece of equipment that is supplied to the Polish army and, not least, is produced in the Polish industry. […] In a conversation with commanders, with soldiers, they directly say: this is a technological leap, - said Bartosz Kownatsky, state secretary of the Ministry of National Defense, who was present at the ceremony in Miedzyrzecz. There is a lot of pathos in these words, but the fact is that the “Rak” system is a complete novelty in the support units of our Ground Forces, modern equipment, domestic design and production, and, importantly, it is delivered to soldiers within the period specified in the contract . It should also be added that such weapons are used by only a few armies of the world, so it is hoped that - especially after being adopted in Poland - they will also arouse the interest of potential foreign contractors.

Timely delivery

The contract for the supply of elements - command vehicles and guns - eight company-owned 120-mm self-propelled mortars on the M120K Rak wheeled chassis was signed on April 28, 2016. Its parties were the Armaments Inspectorate of the Ministry of National Defense and the project implementation consortium, which includes Huta Stalowa Wola SA and Rosomak SA, i.е. enterprises owned by Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa SA, commanders of auxiliary companies - 64 and commanders of fire platoons - 120), and its total value is PLN 120 32 8. Deliveries will be carried out in 8-16 years.

Already at the signing of the contract, representatives of the Ministry of Defense emphasized that the shortened negotiation procedure and the agreement to supply the necessary, but only modular elements, and not a complete set of equipment, were subject to certain conditions. The main thing was to meet the delivery time specified in the document. Thus, the equipment of the first module was supposed to be delivered by the end of June, and the second - by the end of November 2017. In 2018-2019, the military must receive three modules per year. Although until recently there was no certainty at all that the cars would be delivered on time (not due to technical problems, but because of the workflow), in the end everything went well and on June 29, 12 new cars based on the Rosomak chassis were officially handed over to the soldiers from Miedzyrzecz, joining 227 others who were already serving in units of the 17th WBZ. It is also worth emphasizing that the mortars were delivered fully assembled, i.e. with installed and operating Omnidirectional Surveillance Systems (ODS) from PCO SA. A month ago, when the SOD system was introduced in WiT 6/2017, the article contained information that the system would first hit Raki of the second module, and the first eight would get to them later. As a result, by the end of June, the Warsaw company delivered as many as nine sets of SOD, which made it possible to install them on all trucks ready for delivery, previously prepared for their assembly.