MoD gives go ahead for building Narew rocket system

Poland’s defence minister has approved the contract for the construction of the country's short-range air defence system, Narew.

Mariusz Błaszczak penned the deal on Tuesday during the International Defence Industry Exhibition in Kielce, south-eastern Poland.

In late April, Błaszczak said that he had accepted the positive conclusions of analytical and conceptual work regarding the acquisition of the Narew system from the Polish supplier, the Polish Armaments Group (PGZ).

Under the deal, the Polish industry is to be involved in the production of missiles designed by a foreign company to be selected in a future procedure.

The Polish Armed Forces are already equipped with the Grom and Piorun rocket systems, very short-range weapons of Polish production which form part of the Poprad platform.

The Narew rocket system (anti-aircraft short-range rocket sets for combatting targets such as unmanned aerial vehicles) will fill in the gap between the Poprad and the US Patriot systems.

Commenting on the deal concluded on Tuesday, which envisages building nearly 400 launchers for short-range missiles, President Andrzej Duda described it as "the largest and most complex contract in the history of the Polish armed forces," which "means further progress in the modernisation of the Polish army."

"Finally, we are implementing this important task at the highest global level and complementing these elements of our country's anti-missile and anti-aircraft defence shield," Duda said.

He added that the contract will be implemented over a number of years and the framework agreement will be supplemented with a number of supply contracts for specific elements of the Narew system.