On 18 November this year, during the meeting in Bemowo Piskie between the Minister of National Defence Mariusz Błaszczak and the Secretary of the Defence of Great Britain Ben Wallace a statement on the intention was signed as regards to cooperation on the development of the abilities of the Polish Armed Forces in the field of air defence. Minister Błaszczak also announced that as part of a program for obtaining short-range air defence sets (SHORAD) codenamed Narew, the IU MON recommends MBDA CAMM missiles in the first place.
Minister of National Defence Mariusz Błaszczak announced that under the Narew Programme, the Inspectorate of Armament of Ministry of Defence (IU MON) recommends MBDA CAMM missiles for the negotiations in the first place / photo: Polish MOD
The subject of the talks of the ministers of the defence of Poland and Great Britain was the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border and defence cooperation. As Mariusz Błaszczak stated:
A document signed today is a very good sign of Polish-British cooperation. I would like to thank you for the involvement of Great Britain, especially in the face of the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border. Great Britain declared help by the involvement of engineer troops on the border with Belarus. Thank you for a quick response – a reconnaissance group arrived on 11 November.
Minister @mblaszczak: Inspektorat Uzbrojenia rekomendował w pierwszej kolejności do rozmów pocisk CAMM 🇬🇧 dla systemu #Narew. pic.twitter.com/Ogjy8rvfj8
— Ministerstwo Obrony Narodowej 🇵🇱 (@MON_GOV_PL) November 18, 2021
Narew
As part of the Narew Programme, the PGZ-Narew consortium will be responsible for the delivery of 23 anti-aircraft short-range missile sets for the Polish Army. As a part of the contract, among others, the missiles are to be obtained, along with launchers, radiolocation systems, including multi-functional radar fire control system SAJNA, preliminary detection radar P-18PL and passive detection system PET/PCL sites, as well as mobile communication systems and training packages. Contracting all elements should end in 2023, which should enable the first combat missile launch from the fully integrated system in 2026.
The PGZ-Narew Consortium is consisted of: Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa, also a leader of the consortium, Huta Stalowa Wola, Jelcz, Mesko, Ośrodek Badawczo Rozwojowy Centrum Techniki Morskiej, PCO, PIT-Radwar, Wojskowe Zakłady Łączności Nr 1, Wojskowe Zakłady Uzbrojenia, Wojskowe Zakłady Elektroniczne and Zakłady Mechaniczne Tarnów. Within the project there also a space for odthe subjects, not only of Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa but also private ventures, research and development organisations as well as academic centres.
CAMM
MBDA consortium has been offering Poland the CAMM missile for the Narew Programme from 2018 / photo: MILMAG archive
The European MBDA consortium has been offering Poland the SHORAD CAMM (Common Anti-Air Modular Missile) for the Narew Programme from 2018. They allow for the destruction of airborne targets at a distance from 1 to over 25 km, and the ceiling is more than 10 km. The ground-based system named Land Ceptor, entered service with the British Army as Sky Sabre – a part of the FLAADS Programme (Future Local Area Air Defence System) in January this year (MSPO 2018: MBDA aims for Narew).
Missiles, named in turn as Sea Ceptor, are equipping the British missile frigates Type 23 Duke (from 24 May 2018) – a total of 13 ships. Subsequently, they will be installed on 8 new Type 26 City missile frigates built under the Global Combat Ship (GCS) programme and 5 multi-purpose frigates Type 31 Inspiration (in the more distant perspective perhaps also on 5 of the Type 32 frigates) as well as on all 6 Type 45 Daring missile destroyers.
Sea Ceptor was also chosen by the navies of Brazil, Chile, New Zealand and Canada. In turn, their another development, CAMM-ER missiles (Extended Range) with over 40 km range, as part of the Albatros NG system, have been selected by Pakistan.
