Poland is taking a major step to upgrade its ground warfare capability.
On February 24, 2023, the Polish Deputy Prime Minister of Defence Mariusz Błaszczak announced
that Poland plans to order 1,000 Borsuk, Polish-made tracked armored IFVs (Infantry
fighting Vehicles) manufactured by a consortium led by the Polish company Huta Stalowa Wola (HSW).
The Borsuk consortium includes Huta Stalowa Wola (HSW),
a subsidiary of the Polish Armaments Group as well as several other Polish companies.
In this video Defense Updates analyzes why Borsuk IFV will be an excellent addition
to Poland's forces? Let’s get started.
Borsuk (Polish for Badger) is an amphibious infantry fighting vehicle , designed to
replace the fleet of obsolete BWP-1 (the Polish designation for the BMP-1).
In late November 2022, the Borsuk IFV has been tested
by the 15th Mechanized Brigade of the Polish army.
The development of the Borsuk IFV began in 2013. The prototype of the vehicle was unveiled
in 2016, and the testing and evaluation phase began in 2017.
The Borsuk IFV is based on a modular design that
allows it to be easily reconfigured for various mission requirements.
The Borsuk has the capacity to carry a total of 6 military personnel including driver and commander.
The Borsuk is powered by a powerpack consisting of
a 720 hp (530 kW) MTU 8V199 TE20 turbo diesel engine, which drives a six-gear
(four forward and two reverse gears) Perkins X300 automatic transmission.
The running gear consists of six dual rubber-lined road wheels,
with two return rollers on each side. The hydropneumatic suspension is designed
specifically for the Borsuk and consists of six independent in-arm units on each side.
The Borsuk is able to use different types of tracks - it was presented on
different occasions outfitted with steel tracks or composite rubber tracks (CRT).
The vehicle is amphibious without preparation - crossing a body of water only requires raising
the trim vane, which can be done without leaving the vehicle, from the driver's seat.
In water, Borsuk is propelled by two water
jets with rotating nozzles to provide steering in the water.
The Borsuk's maximum speed is 65 km/h or 40 mph on road and 8 km/h or 5 mph in water.
Its operational range is 550 km or 340 miles.
The commander's GOD-1 "Iris" sight provides 360° field of view with elevation angles
from -20° to 60°. It is equipped with an eye-safe laser rangefinder and two
optical channels: daytime, with a light intensity sensor and thermal.
The night vision camera has a French 3rd generation image sensor.
The Borsuk is fitted with the ZSSW-30 remote control turret armed with the 30 mm Mk44S
Bushmaster II chain gun automatic cannon and a coaxial 7.62 mm UKM-2000C machine gun. The
turret also features two Spike-LR anti-tank guided missiles in a launch container on the right side.
The ZSSW-30's fire control system is made by WB Group and provides full hunter-killer and
killer-killer capabilities and superb accuracy while driving and against moving targets
The ZSSW-30 provides around 300 autocannon rounds,
including over 200 ABM rounds, and 250 machine gun rounds ready to use.
This is one of the biggest first-stage ammunition racks among similar systems.
Both the autocannon and the machine gun can be
reloaded and operated from the inside of the turret.
The Spike-LR is the Long Range version of the original Spike ATGM. It is developed in Israel.
The ATGMs can hit armor at ranges from 200 meters to 4 kilometers or 2.5 miles when
guided manually, and up to 4.5 kilometers or 2.8 miles in the fire and forget mode.
Reported armour penetration capability is more than 700
mm (28 in) of Rolled homogeneous armour (RHA).
The Borsuk's chassis is made out of welded Armox 500T steel plates
of varying thickness arranged so that they function as spaced armor.
The turret armor consists of a thin layer of polyethylene fabric sandwiched between
two steel plates and an additional piece of ceramic composite armor
(two steel plates with alumina tiles in between) on the ATGM container.
In addition to armor, Borsuk is protected by the Obra-3 soft-kill active protection system.
This system consists of four laser detector sets (each one consisting of three detectors),
a control unit and eight smoke grenade dischargers. The detectors work in 360°
azimuth and in elevation from -6° to +30° and can detect light in the wavelength spectrum
from between different laser sources, such as laser rangefinders or target designators.
Obra-3 can work in different modes: manual, semi-automatic and automatic.
In automatic mode, the grenades are launched automatically when
the turret is rotated (also automatically) to the direction of an incoming laser beam.
Poland forms one portion of NATO's eastern flank. The country is strategically located,
sharing long borders with Belarus and Ukraine. As Russia - Ukraine conflict rage on, Poland has
become a staging ground for foreign arms and other military supplies heading into Ukraine.
Poland itself has been one of the biggest donors of military equipment to Ukraine this year.
There is apprehension in the country that it may face aggression from Russia
in near future and this has made it look for war-fighting equipment with renewed urgency.
It is getting HIMARS, M1A2 Abrams MBT,
AH-64E Apache attack helicopters, and K239 Chunmo MLRS to name a few.
The addition of very capable Borsuk IFV in pretty large numbers means that the country
will have a potent armor force that will be formidable deterrence against Russia.
Borsuk IFV being well suited for the terrain and capable of taking
out tanks using the Spike LR would be an excellent force multiplier.