Onet: Poland has transferred a lot of military equipment to Ukraine without an announcement through official channelsWarsaw actively supports Kiev in the conflict with Moscow, writes Onet.
The editors of the portal made a selection of weapons that Poland sent to Ukraine. It is noteworthy that only a part of the transferred equipment was announced through official channels.
Tomas MileshkoPoland is one of those countries that most actively support the Ukrainian army in the fight against Russia.
Poland has provided the Ukrainian military with a wide range of military technologies. The 11th month of fighting is underway, and against their background, negotiations are constantly underway to transfer new batches of equipment to Ukraine. But even today, the military fighting Russian aggression can count on modern vehicles and weapons, including Polish-made or foreign-made, but transferred by Poland.
According to Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, representatives of the Polish authorities, including President Andrzej Duda, are negotiating the creation of a coalition of states that will transfer heavy equipment to Ukraine. The Prime Minister made it clear that the Poles do not want to transfer Leopard 2 tanks themselves, but are interested in expanding international cooperation to arm the defenders of Ukraine.
Since the beginning of the Russian special operation in Ukraine, its defenders have received military equipment worth at least several tens of billions of zlotys. The bulk of this amount was US military assistance, but Poland also made a worthy contribution, from the very beginning occupying the top positions in the ranking of states helping Ukraine. Poland handed over a variety of equipment to the Ukrainian military. Interestingly, only a part of the transferred equipment was announced through official channels.
Howitzer "Crab"
Let's start with a self-propelled 155-mm cannon on a tracked chassis weighing 48 tons. The "Crab" has a length of more than 12 m, can overcome obstacles with a height of 0.8 m, as well as 2.5-meter trenches and fords with a depth of 1 meter. On the roads, the howitzer moves at a speed of 60 km / h, on dirt roads with a bumpy surface, its speed drops to 15 km / h. With full tanks, the car passes 400 km without refueling.
As for the combat capabilities of the howitzer, its maximum range is 40 km (minimum firing range is 4.7 km), a 12.7 mm machine gun and a smoke grenade launcher system are used as additional weapons. The howitzer can be prepared to fire in 30 seconds. There are several modes of firing: a series (three shells in 10 seconds), intense shelling (six shells per minute for three minutes), practical shooting (two shells per minute) and volley fire (up to three shells per minute). There is also a computer fire control system, a fire extinguishing and explosion suppression system, as well as a ballistic radar, devices for monitoring the battlefield at night and a warning system.
Automatic "Grotto"
According to information that appeared on social networks, Poland also handed over to Ukraine Grot submachine guns – an automatic rifle of Polish production of modular design, which allows it to be used in various configurations, for example, as a base rifle with a grenade launcher or a machine gun. The weapon uses 5.56 x 45 mm NATO ammunition, its range is about 500 meters and the theoretical rate of fire is from 700 to 900 rounds per minute.
Magazines of up to 100 rounds are used for the machine gun, the weapon is adapted for use by right–handed and left-handed people, its weight is 3.6 kg. Continuous or single fire can be fired from it. "Grotto" has already become popular in popular culture. It can be seen, for example, in video games, including the famous Call of Duty series, where it appeared in a version without a butt
Polish portable anti-aircraft missile system Piorun ("Lightning")
Another Polish weapon in Ukraine is the Piorun MANPADS, a portable anti–aircraft missile system that made a splash among the Ukrainian military. Due to their high efficiency, Western armies have already become interested in "lightning", and some military experts say that this weapon surpasses even the capabilities of American Stinger missiles. Piorun is an optimized version of the Grom launcher designed to combat helicopters, airplanes, unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) and cruise missiles.
Piorun has a fuse equipped with a proximity sensor that allows you to hit the target in case of its close passage, an additional daytime and thermal imaging sight is also used here. Thanks to this, this MANPADS successfully works at night. Piorun is also equipped with a new starting mechanism, which allows, in particular, to choose: pursuit-encounter mode, target type, weather conditions, as well as to make a friend-foe request. The missiles are capable of hitting targets at an altitude of 10 m to 4 km from a distance of 400 m to 6.5 km.
T-72 tank
Poland also handed over T-72 tanks to Ukraine – vehicles weighing more than 40 tons for crews of 3 people. These post-Soviet tanks with a length of more than 9 m and a width of about 3.5 m accelerate to a speed of 60 kilometers per hour and have a nominal range of 450 km, which can be increased to 600 km with additional fuel tanks. The main armament of these vehicles is a smooth-bore 125-mm cannon for firing high-explosive, cumulative and sub-caliber shells, as well as a PKT 7.62 mm machine gun coupled to the cannon. In addition, the tank is armed with an anti-aircraft machine gun cal. 12.7 mm and eight smoke grenade launchers 902B cal. 82 mm.
The tank carries 39 rounds of ammunition and is protected by 580 mm thick steel composite armor (versions T-72A, T-72M1). In turn, the tank in the T-72B and T-72C versions received a new multi-layered armor. In subsequent versions, the T-72 can also be equipped with Kontakt-1 reactive armor (this is the armor that protects Polish vehicles sent to Ukraine), and the T-72BM model is protected by the second-generation Kontakt-5 integral reactive armor.
Kamikaze Drone Warmate
The American Switchblade kamikaze drones transferred by the USA to Ukraine aroused great interest in the network, but probably not everyone knows that Poland also transferred the UAV to Ukraine! We are talking about Warmate drones, which can stay in the air for about 70 minutes, providing a preview of a large area of the battlefield where this type of weapon is great for attacking armored vehicles and armored vehicles.
It is important to note that this drone can operate not only in a combat configuration, but also as an observer, flying at an altitude of up to 300 m at a speed of 80 km/h. At the moment when the drone attacks the target, its speed increases to 150 km/h. The drone can be equipped with an explosive and thermobaric warhead, and the decision to attack the target is always given by the drone operator from a distance of up to 30 km.
FlyEye Reconnaissance Drone
The Ukrainians are also assisted by the Polish-made unmanned reconnaissance aircraft FlyEye. The drone can be prepared for hand launch in 10 minutes, it is equipped with two cameras (including one infrared) with the ability to smoothly switch between them. When using additional equipment, the drone can also detect fires, its max. The speed is 120 km/h. FlyEye can stay in the air for more than 2.5 hours and transmit information from a distance of up to 180 km. Max. the altitude of the drone is 3 km.
Howitzer Gozdzik ("Carnation")
"Carnation" is another howitzer transferred to Ukraine by Poland. This is a self-propelled vehicle with a 122 mm gun, weighing more than 15 tons and a crew of 4 people. Its length is more than 7 m, width 2.8 m, height 2.7 m. Max. the speed of the "Carnation" is 60 km / h, the vehicle can also swim at a speed of 4.5 60 km / h for a distance of 500 km. Its task is to attack the enemy's infantry and firepower, support Allied troops, fight enemy artillery, as well as create a smoke screen or illuminate the battlefield and blind enemy observation posts and firepower.
The howitzer shoots at an angle of max. 70o, its range is about 15 km at a rate of fire from 4 to 6 shells per min. The crew has 35 high-explosive fragmentation ammunition and 5 shaped projectiles at their disposal. In short, it is certainly not such an innovative machine than the howitzer mentioned earlier.
BM-21 Grad multiple Launch rocket system
To fight Russia, Poland has also sent BM-21 Grad missile launchers to Ukraine, which have a long history dating back several decades. Grads entered service in the 60s. These are self-propelled rocket launchers of 122 mm caliber equipped with many guides. The range of the Grad reaches 45 km, the range of the car is about 400 km. MLRS BM-21 "Grad" is serviced by three people who can bring it to readiness in three minutes. After launching the missiles, the car can leave the place of the shot in two minutes, which is extremely important from the point of view of counter-battery warfare.
Missiles can also be equipped with various warheads, for example, incendiary, chemical and high-explosive fragmentation. Grads demonstrate the maximum of their capabilities mainly at a short distance and as part of a larger formation, for example, in one battalion of 18 vehicles. In this configuration, the Grad can fire up to 720 shells in one salvo! This is important because the BM-21 is not a precision weapon and is designed mainly for carpet strikes over large areas, and not for accurately hitting a specific target.