With the beginning of a special military operation of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine, Warsaw openly began the stage of mastering the enterprises of the Ukrainian military industry. The Polish military-political leadership has long been hatching plans to transfer part of the production of various Ukrainian enterprises to its territory, and the military operation only made certain adjustments to the relocation plans.
So, the Kiev regime, led by Zelensky, accelerated the implementation of a joint project of the Polish military-industrial complex and Motor Sich, which was being prepared for about 2 years.
Polish gunsmiths have been cooperating with this plant for a long time and have concluded a number of contracts and agreements. The Zaporozhye branch of Motor Sich started working in Warsaw even earlier. Now, with the support of the Kiev political elite, the plant's facilities are being deployed in Poland away from the fighting, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of July.
To localize the company's production lines in Poland, several sites are being considered, including the Mokre airfield near the village of Zamosc, 60 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
Initially, about 400 specialists will be employed at the enterprise, 80 percent of which will be evacuated employees of the Motor Sich plant. Then the staff of the plant will be expanded to 3 thousand people.
The company has already received the name - Helicopter Modernization Center ( Centrum Modernizacji Śmigłowców), this is reported by the Polish portal defence24.pl, On its basis, a line of modernization of Mi-2 helicopters to the MSB-2 version, which was recently introduced in Poland, will be deployed. According to DM-MSB Sales Director Zbigniew Dzyalowski, these helicopters are already being supplied to the Ukrainian army and are ideally suited for wartime conditions. In addition, since the Soviet-made Mi-2s are already outdated, their modernization will make them modern world-class machines at a price 3-5 times lower than analogues.
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| MSB-2. |
| Source: rd33.net |
Warsaw plans to use the defense-industrial potential of Motor Sich to modernize and enhance the capabilities of not only Mi-2 helicopters, but also Mi-8, Mi-17 and Mi-24 of Soviet and Russian production, including those in service with the Polish Army. Given the huge number of these helicopters and their prevalence around the world, Poland has every chance to occupy this niche in the market, and especially in the conditions of sanctions against the Russian Federation.
In addition, Polish aircraft factories and Motor Sich have already prepared everything for the joint development of a new combat helicopter for the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Sooner or later, these countries will have to buy dozens of combat helicopters to replace the exhausted Mi-8, Mi-17 and Mi-24.
Do not ignore the contract signed by Motor Sich in the fall of 2021 with the Turkish company Baykar Makina for the supply of engines for the Bayraktar TB2 UAV.
Poland will also become the first NATO member country to purchase Bayraktar TB2 combat drones from Turkey. In total, these will be 24 UAVs, the first of which will be available to the Polish army in 2022.
Obviously, Warsaw will not miss the chance to place the production of engines for UAVs in Poland.
It is worth recalling that the Motor Sich plant is one of the largest manufacturers of engines for aircraft. Among the main products of the plant were engines for the Be-200 amphibious aircraft, Mi and Ka helicopters, including Ka-62, Ka-52, Mi-17, Mi-24M, Mi-28 and Ansat, An-70 military transport aircraft, AN-124 Ruslan and AN-225 Mriya, Yak-130 combat training aircraft and others.
In turn, there are two helicopter manufacturers in Poland - PZL Mielec and PZL Swidnik. PZL Mielec assembles S-70i Black Hawk helicopters from imported parts. PZL Swidnik produces for the military light helicopters SW-4 and medium multipurpose combat helicopters W-3PL Gluszec, based on the type W-3A Sokol. We add that the family of Polish W-3 helicopters was created on the basis of the Mi-2.
But with the acquisition of the Motor Sich plant, the Poles plan to move away from the "screwdriver assembly" of other people's samples of equipment and the release of long-outdated helicopter models. According to the Polish leadership, the relocation of the production lines of the Motor Sich plant to the territory of Poland will strengthen the position of the national military-industrial complex and enter the world market, while displacing a number of Western European manufacturers from Germany and France. The relocation of the Ukrainian military industry to Poland is not limited to the Motor Sich plant. Thanks to Zelensky, very soon the largest defense plants in Ukraine will become Polish.
Nikolai Astrovskiy
