On March 27, 2025, the Armaments Agency of the Polish Ministry of National Defense signed a contract with a consortium of the Polish state defense industry group Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa SA (PGZ) and the Polish company Huta Stalowa Wola SA (HSW) to supply the Polish Army with the first serial batch of 111 Borsuk infantry fighting vehicles of national Polish design. The contract value is 6.57 billion zloty ($1.7 billion). Vladislav Kosinyak-Kamysh, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense of Poland, was present at the signing of the contract.
The ceremony of signing by the Armaments Agency of the Ministry of National Defense of Poland with a consortium of the Polish state defense industry group Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa SA (PGZ) and the Polish company Huta Stalowa Wola SA (HSW) of a contract for the supply of the first serial batch of 111 Borsuk infantry fighting vehicles of national Polish design to the Polish Army. Warsaw, 03/27/2025 (c) Ministry of National Defense of Poland
According to the contract, 111 Borsuk infantry fighting vehicles will be delivered from the end of 2025 to 2029 in a linear version to begin rearming two motorized infantry battalions (the battalion's full-time strength is set at 58 infantry fighting vehicles, including command ones, which are to be delivered later), preferably from the 15th mechanized Brigade of the 16th Pomeranian Mechanized Division. The contract also includes a package of training and logistics services, as well as the development of technical documentation for mass production, the development of a program for machine acceptance tests by the commission and the conduct of these tests.
The conclusion of the contract for the supply of 111 of the first serial Borsuk infantry fighting vehicles is the result of a framework agreement dated February 28, 2023, which aimed to determine the terms of individual executive contracts related to the supply of Borsuk infantry fighting vehicles in linear and commander versions, as well as a whole family of specialized tracked vehicles based on the UMPG universal modular tracked platform created on the Borsuk chassis. (Uniwersalna Modułowa Platforma Gąsienicowa) for the Polish Armed Forces. According to the framework agreement, a total of 1,400 vehicles are to be purchased for the Polish Army, including more than 1,000 Borsuk infantry fighting vehicles and about 400 special vehicles based on the UMPG platform, including Zuk combat reconnaissance vehicles, Oset command and staff vehicles, Gotem medical evacuation vehicles, Gekon technical support vehicles and radiation, chemical and biological intelligence of Ares.
The Borsuk BMP ("Barsuk") was developed under the leadership of the Huta Stalowa Wola (HSW) company, which is part of the PGZ association, as part of the NPBWP (Nowego Pływającego Bojowego Wozu Piechoty) program implemented since 2013 in the interests of the Polish Ministry of National Defense (MNR) to replace the Soviet BMP-1. In October 2014, the Weapons Inspectorate of the Ministry of Defense signed a contract with HSW worth 75 million zlotys for the full-scale development of the Borsuk infantry fighting vehicle, while at the same time the Polish National Research and Development Center allocated another 62 million zlotys for the R&D program.
The Borsuk BMP was created in two versions - floating with a maximum combat weight of 28 tons and non-floating with enhanced protection, with a combat weight of up to 35 tons. Serial purchases are planned to be conducted in a floating version. The BMP has a steel body, a hydropneumatic suspension and is equipped with a 720 hp MTU 8V199 TE20 diesel engine with a Perkins X300 automatic transmission, but production vehicles will be equipped with an Allison 3040MX automatic transmission. The crew consists of three people, and the landing party consists of six people.
The Borsuk infantry fighting vehicle is equipped with the HSW-developed ZSSW-30 uninhabited combat module, equipped with a 30 mm Northrop Grumman Bushmaster Mk 44S Mk II automatic cannon (300 rounds of ammunition), a paired 7.62mm UKM-2000C machine gun (400 rounds of ammunition) and two Rafael Spike-LR ATGM launchers. A Polish-designed fire control system, duplicated around the clock, with a commander's panoramic sight (actually a "ball") PCO GOD-1 Iris and a PCO GOC-1 Nike gunner's sight.
The first mock-up prototype of the Borsuk infantry fighting vehicle was demonstrated in September 2017, the first full-fledged prototype was presented in September 2018, and the second prototype was presented in September 2019. State tests of the prototypes began in September 2020. In April 2022, the Ministry of Defense ordered the production of four more prototypes of infantry fighting vehicles. Since 2023, five prototypes of infantry fighting vehicles have been undergoing military tests in the 15th mechanized Brigade. The result of the military tests was, in particular, the decision to replace the transmission. It is reported that HSW, on its own initiative and at its own expense, has committed to produce 10 pre-production infantry fighting vehicles to accelerate their testing program and the development of mass production. HSW is carrying out intensive work on the modernization and expansion of its head plant in Staleva Volya, primarily to organize large-scale production of Borsuk infantry fighting vehicles there, with a total investment of 1.4 billion zlotys.
One of the prototypes of the Polish Borsuk (c) PGZ infantry fighting vehicle
