BAE Systems on Monday signed an agreement with the Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa (PGZ), or Polish Armaments Group, to help offer combat and recovery vehicles to the country, to include the M88 Armored Recovery Vehicle.
The memorandum of understanding with PGZ, which is a Polish state-owned holding company that brings together dozens of defense firms, follows the State Department’s approval of a foreign military sale with Poland in February that included 26 of BAE Systems’ M88A2 Hercules combat recovery vehicles.
“Today’s agreement underscores an important milestone in our developing industrial cooperation partnership with PGZ and demonstrates our commitment to delivering critical capabilities to support Poland’s defense modernization efforts. The M88 program now gives us the opportunity to deliver localization of sustainment services to Poland. We look forward to delivering the best, most capable recovery and battlefield solutions to equip Poland’s Land Forces with the modern, proven NATO platforms necessary to preserve European stability,” Jeremy Tondreault, president of BAE Systems’ Platforms & Services sector, said in a statement.
Along with the M88A2 vehicles, the $6 billion FMS deal with Poland approved earlier this year included 250 Abrams tanks, which Warsaw first requested in July 2021, as well as 17 Joint Assault Bridges, 250 AN/VLQ-12 CREW Duke counter-IED systems, 276 M2 .50 caliber machine guns, 500 M240C 7.62mm machine guns and 15 AGT1500 gas turbine engines (Defense Daily, Feb. 18).
The Army in late July officially awarded General Dynamics Land Systems [GD] a $1.15 billion deal to build 250 of the M1A2 System Enhancement Program version 3 (SEPv3) Abrams tanks for Poland, with deliveries expected to begin in January 2025 (Defense Daily, Aug. 25).
BAE Systems noted the M88 recovery vehicle is a “key part of [Poland’s] M1A2 Abrams tank procurement program” and the agreement with PGZ will “expand the scope of their cooperation to support Polish Armed Forces modernization projects and work toward securing critical capabilities of life-cycle support in Polish defense industry facilities.”
“We’re committed to increasing the value and scope of our strategic partnership with every company that’s involved in Polish Armed Forces technical modernization programs. BAE Systems has secured a major foothold within our land forces with the M88 ARVs and we’re working on securing a fruitful relationship, which will provide high-quality services for our soldiers as well as new capabilities for our facilities,” Sebastian Chwałek, president of the management board of PGZ, said in a statement.
BAE Systems noted the cooperation agreement with PGZ also includes opportunities to offer the new Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV) to Poland.
AMPV is the Army’s replacement for its legacy M113 armored personnel carriers, with BAE Systems delivering five variants of the platform: a general purpose vehicle, the mission command vehicle, a mortar carrier, a medical evacuation vehicle and a medical treatment vehicle.
“BAE Systems’ AMPVs are a family of next-generation, highly-survivable combat vehicles which provide substantial protection, mobility, reliability, and interoperability to their users,” the company wrote in a statement. “The AMPV will be integrated with the U.S. Army’s Armored Brigade Combat Team (ABCT) and is tailored to operate seamlessly alongside the M1A2 Abrams tanks.”