Poland elects to upgrade T-72 tanks

26th July 2019 - 12:30 GMT | by The Shephard News Team

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PGZ consortium and ZM Bumar-Łabędy are to refurbish and upgrade the Polish Army’s T-72 tanks under a contract with the Polish Ministry of Defence announced on 22 July.

The $450 million contract will see the tanks modified with new sight and sight-aiming instruments as well as installation of digital external and internal communication systems.

The work will begin by the end of 2019 and run through to 2025.

Other PGZ Group companies will be involved in the work, with ZM Bumar-Łabędy acting as technical integrator.

Sebastian Chwałek, vice president of the management board of PGZ SA, said: ‘The implementation of this task with the forces of the two leading companies in the field of armoured technique of the group will allow us to start and finish the individual stages of the work more quickly and to better use the production capacities of both plants.

‘Building competences in the field of work on tanks T-72 in both centres also allows us to strengthen our offer of modernisation packages for potential foreign partners.’

In a later statement from PGZ SA, the company said that abandonment of the PT-91 project and modernisation of the T-72 has led to a loss of capability in the armoured section of the Polish defence industry. As a result it welcomes the new contract. However, the company believes that the continued use of tanks T-72 by the armed forces should be seen as a bridging capacity.

The statement continued: ‘The reconstruction of production capacity and capacity in Gliwice plant is the next step to establishing an industrial base for the implementation of works related to the new tank for the Polish armed forces. The programme of modernisation of Leopard 2A4 tanks to the 2PL standard or the creation of a Service and Logistics Center in Poznań is to serve this purpose.’