On Tuesday, 28 October 2025, the Military Automotive Works (Wojskowe Zakłady Motoryzacyjne, WZM) in Poznań, part of the Polish Armaments Group (PGZ), announced that under a newly signed licensing agreement with the U.S. company Allison Transmission Inc., they are expanding their service portfolio to include maintenance of Cross-Drive transmissions.
“Key Polish combat systems, including the K9PL and Krab howitzers, Abrams tanks, and the Borsuk infantry fighting vehicles, rely on Allison transmissions,” said Elżbieta Wawrzynkiewicz, President of the Management Board of the Military Automotive Works. “The agreement with Allison makes WZM an authorized partner, enabling Polish state-owned companies and end users to carry out inspections and overhauls in Poznań without having to send equipment abroad, which is crucial for national defense,” she added.
Allison Transmission Inc. is a global leader in the production of fully automatic medium- and heavy-duty transmissions for civilian and military vehicles, ranging from trucks to armored combat platforms. Allison transmissions are successfully used in more than 80 allied countries worldwide.
The signed agreement is an important component of the actively developing Powerpack Center at WZM, which supports the overhaul of armored tracked vehicles.
Plans also include expanding cooperation with Allison Transmission Inc. to cover other types of transmissions, as well as the installation and validation of a powertrain test bench.
Not only WZM
Interestingly, on 3 November, Huta Stalowa Wola (HSW) announced that it had signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with Allison Transmission Inc., marking another important step toward further developing HSW’s competencies – in this case, in the design and production of modern transmissions, one of the key components of powerpacks for combat vehicles manufactured in Stalowa Wola. The MoA follows a letter of intent signed on 22 May of this year.
Allison Transmission Inc. gearboxes are used, among others, in the Borsuk infantry fighting vehicle (X300 in prototypes and 3040 MX in serial production), as well as in many other systems operated by the Polish Armed Forces: the K9A1 Thunder (SNT Dynamics/Allison Transmission X1100-5A3) and AHS Krab 155 mm self-propelled howitzers (X1100-5A3), the M1A1FEP and M1A2SEPv3 Abrams tanks (DDA X-1100-3B), the M88A2 HERCULES armored recovery vehicles (XT-1410-5A), and the Waran 4×4 multirole tactical vehicles and future Heron 6×6 command vehicles (4500SP). Allison transmissions are also used in the Light Armored Reconnaissance Transport (LOTR) Kleszcz based on the Bóbr-3 (type not disclosed by the manufacturer), as well as in the prototype Jelcz 442.32 Automatic truck (3000 SP).
On 22 November 2024, the U.S. Army Contracting Command (ACC) at Detroit Arsenal, Michigan, acting on behalf of the U.S. Department of Defense, signed an 80,652,849 USD contract with Allison Transmission Inc. to provide support services for the operation of military vehicle transmissions used by the Polish Armed Forces.
