Currently, there are 892 tanks with the Polish Armed Forces, the forth-largest fleet in NATO, after the United States, Turkey and Greece. It is interesting that all the vehicles are so-called third-generation tanks. In addition, Poland is now the only country in the European Union to develop a new tank, the PL-01 Anders.
The new tank is being developed by local company OBRUM with the support from Britain’s BAE Systems. Mass production is scheduled for 2018.
Russian military expert Konstantin Sivkov doubted that Poland would be able to create a breakthrough combat machine.
"In order to build a good tank, a serious technical and engineering background is needed. Such countries as the US, Russia, Germany, Britain, France and China can do that. But Poland totally lacks experience in developing tanks. In the past, they modified Britain and Soviet machines. Now, they might take the German Leopard and make something out of it," Sivkov told Sputnik.
However, the expert suggested that Poland is unlikely to make a revolution in the tank industry.
One of the main problems Poland will face is the absence of a capable gun for the new tank, he pointed out.
"Another problem is developing composite armor with active dynamic protection. Poland does not have the technologies to produce this type of armor, unlike Israel, Russia, Germany and Britain. For example, Russia has unique active protection systems like the Drozd and the Arena. Israel has similar systems. And that’s all," the expert said.
As a result, any assumptions that the PL-01 would be the killer of the Armata are false, Sivkov concluded.
