On April 5, 2023, during the visit of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to Warsaw, a protocol of intent on cooperation in the supply of Polish-made military equipment to Ukraine was signed . It is reported that as part of the protocol, 150 Rosomak wheeled armored personnel carriers (8x8), three company sets (24 combat vehicles) of self-propelled Rak mortars on the Rosomak chassis and 100 Piorun portable anti-aircraft missile systems should be delivered to Ukraine, and 14 MiG-29 fighters from the presence of the Polish Air Force should also be transferred.
Polish 120 mm self-propelled mortar M120K Rak on the chassis of the armored personnel carrier Rosomak (c) Huta Stalowa WolaEarlier, on April 1, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, during a visit to the Polish enterprise Rosomak SA (part of the Polish state defense industrial association Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa - PGZ) in Semianowice-Slensk (Silesian Voivodeship), said that a contract had been signed the day before for the supply of 100 Rosomak armored personnel carriers manufactured in Ukraine this plant.
Moravetsky also pointed out that the financing of this contract will be carried out from funds allocated by the European Union and the United States - apparently, this also applies to all other types of weapons under the agreement of April 5. [...]
Now the number of Rosomak armored personnel carriers planned for delivery to Ukraine has grown to 150. Rosomak is a well-known AMV (8x8) armored personnel carrier manufactured in Poland under license from the Finnish Patria Group under a 2002 agreement at the former Wojskowe Zakłady Mechaniczne (WZM) armored repair plant in Siemianowice-Slensk. In March 2014, in honor of the new specialization of this enterprise, it was renamed Rosomak SA. In total, since 2004, more than 900 Rosomak armored personnel carriers have been assembled and manufactured in Poland in various versions (not counting 90 supplied to Poland directly by the Patria group), including 55 delivered to the United Arab Emirates. The Polish Ministry of National Defense has so far contracted more than 1,200 Rosomak armored personnel carriers, of which more than 1,000 have been received by now (with Finnish-made vehicles).
What was new in the agreement on April 5 was the decision to supply Ukraine with three company sets ("firing modules") of 120 mm self-propelled mortars M120K Rak on the chassis of the same Rosomak APC. Each "firing module" includes eight self-propelled mortar combat vehicles and four AWD control vehicles (also on the Rosomak APC chassis), as well as three AWA ammunition delivery vehicles based on the Polish Jelcz 882.53 (8x8) truck and AWRU artillery weapons repair vehicle on the chassis of the Jelcz P662D.35 (6x6). Rak self-propelled mortars have been developed and manufactured since 2016 by the company Huta Stalowa Wola SA (HSW), part of the same PGZ association, in Stalowa Wola, the chassis is supplied by the Rosomak plant. The automated breech-loading 120 mm MAHSW mortar of the Rak complex with a barrel length of 25 calibers is placed in a rotating turret, the firing range of modern ammunition reaches 10 km, and an active-reactive mine - 12 km. The ammunition carried is 46 rounds. To date, 15 Rak firing modules have been ordered for the Polish Army (a total of 120 self-propelled mortars and 60 control vehicles), which are part of mechanized battalions, plus two training self-propelled mortars. For 2022, 10 firing modules and both training systems were delivered. Ukraine will become the first foreign customer of Rak mortars.
Ukraine's purchase of 100 Piorun MANPADS manufactured by the PGZ enterprise ZM Mesko SA is based, as stated, on the good results of the use of these complexes in combat operations against Russian aviation by the armed forces of Ukraine, which earlier in 2022 received batches of Piorun MANPADS from the presence of the Polish Army as military assistance.
