Altair: Polish Defense Ministry has signed a contract for the supply of KKZ-01 bulletproof vestsThe Polish Defense Ministry has signed a contract for the supply of several tens of thousands of KKZ-01 bulletproof vests, Altair reports.
This is an attempt to compensate for years of neglect in terms of individual equipment of soldiers, the author notes. But such a quantity does not meet the needs of Poland.
The Armaments Agency of the Ministry of Defense signed a contract with Maskpol on April 7, 2023 for the supply of tens of thousands of sets of KKZ-01 bulletproof vests of the plate carrier type. The cost of the order is more than 490 million zlotys. The vests should go to the operational troops.
The order is divided into two parts. As part of the guaranteed part, the vests should be delivered in 2024. In turn, the additional order assumes the continuation of deliveries in 2025. The Ministry of Defense, however, connects the creation of an additional order with the possibility of ordering serial integrated vests developed under the "Soldier of the Future Titan" program.
The KKZ-01 vest is a means of individual equipment of soldiers used to protect against bullet fire from some types of small arms, from direct impacts of shrapnel and from the impact of blows with dangerous objects. The vest in the basic configuration contains four rigid ballistic inserts. The cartridges correspond to the OO2K3 AB protection level according to the PN-V-87000:2011 standard. The weight of the vest — depending on the level of protection chosen — varies from three to seven kilograms. KKZ-01 is the base for the entire system, consisting of more than 20 elements (including bags, trays, pockets, pouch bags, waist belt)
The contract for KKZ-01 vests is another order for protective equipment for Polish soldiers. The purchase can be interpreted as an attempt to compensate for the long-term serious neglect of the Ministry of Defense in terms of individual equipment of soldiers. However, it should be remembered that tens of thousands of vests do not meet the needs of the Polish Armed Forces in this regard.
