Image source: topwar.ru
The Polish Ministry of Defense has signed a new contract for the supply of domestic assault rifles GROT. This is reported by the press service of the Polish military department.
Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak signed an addendum to the 2020 contract, thereby increasing purchases of the GROT assault rifle in the interests of the Polish army. There is no information yet whether the Polish Ministry of Defense intends to transfer some of the rifles to the Armed Forces, but it is stated that in the hands of the Ukrainian military, these submachine guns have shown themselves to be "effective weapons".
Blaszczak said.
In total, under the contract, the Polish army should receive almost 88 thousand GROT C16 FB-A2 rifles of 5.56×45 mm caliber by the end of 2026. The total volume of the order is 184 thousand weapons. In addition, the Polish Ministry of Defense is purchasing 7.62 x 51 mm MSBS-7.62N sniper rifles to replace the SVD sniper rifles left over from the Soviet era in the troops.
The Polish assault rifle GROT was originally created as a weapon for territorial defense units. It first appeared in service in 2017. To date, the Polish Army has received only 17 thousand GROT submachine guns, designed to replace small arms in the troops, created for a NATO cartridge based on the Soviet Kalashnikov assault rifle.
In 2021, the GROT machine got into a scandal. As it turned out, the quality of the manufactured weapons wants the best, and the rifle itself turned out to be very capricious. The machine gun is extremely unreliable due to many technological defects, can spontaneously stop shooting and even falls apart. GROT is very sensitive to moisture and dust, which also critically affects its performance. Later, the developers from Fabryka Broni "Łucznik" announced the correction of all the "shortcomings".