Ukraine is to receive 200 Polish Rosomak Armored Personnel Carriers, as president Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Saturday 9 April.
According to Zelensky, Ukraine is set to receive two tranches of Polish Rosomak Armored Personnel Carriers, “now a hundred and one hundred later”. Zelensky also mentioned deliveries of Infantry Fighting Vehicles, self-propelled mortars (likely Rak based on Rosomak) as well as missiles (likely Piorun) and MiG-29 fighters. Regarding fighters, Andrzej Duda, president of Poland, said a few days ago that four MiG-29s had been already transfered to Ukraine and four more were being transfered, with Poland being ready to provide six more (14 in total).
It is still not clear yet, however, what will be the way Ukraine will receive Rosomak APCs (a license version of Patria AMV) from Poland. More than a week ago, Mateusz Morawiecki, Polish PM announced that Ukraine would purchase 100 of those vehicles, and those would be funded by EU and US. During the visit of Zelensky to Poland which happened last week it was announced that Ukraine would purchase not 100 but 150 Rosomak APCs, as well as “three companies” of Rak self-propelled mortars.
It is important to note that Poland usually procures base vehicles (chassis) and mortar turrets/C2 equipment separately, so approx. 30-40 Rak and supporting vehicles, could make a substantial part of the order of 150 carriers (if it is included and not counted separately, which has not been confirmed, but was a common practice in the past).
Also, Morawiecki and Zelensky were making a statement in front of several Polish existing Rosomak APCs with Hitfist turrets. This would suggest that on the top of the Rosomak APCs procured from industry (a Rosomak company belonging to PGZ), Poland could provide some vehicles from its existing stocks. While details of the transaction are still not public, it is not unlikely that in the end deliveries would combine newly manufactured vehicles as well as those that were mothballed for conversion for specialist variants for the Polish Army and also a number of vehicles that Polish Army is currently using could be found in the first batch.
Additionally, Mateusz Morawiecki suggested that the industry would increase the capacity to deliver Rosomaks. This way both urgent Ukrainian requirements and the backfill for any gaps in the Polish Land Forces could be served in the short to medium term. Last but not least, there is no final word on the configuration of the Rosomak for Ukraine, though Rak mortars will likely be delivered in similar configuration to that one used in the Polish Army. Several days ago, Australian EOS has been awarded a $80 m contract for 100 heavy RWS, to be delivered to Ukrainian Spetstechnoexport in 2023-2024. There are speculations that those could be used on Rosomak vehicles, but again – no official confirmation is available. If, however, existing Polish Army vehicles are provided, it is likely that some of them will be armed with Hitfist-30P turret, as this is the most common variant of Rosomak APC in the Polish Army.
Source : Defence24
