Poland to resume anti-personnel mine production, plans border minefields as part of ‘Eastern Shield’
Poland to resume anti-personnel mine production, plans border minefields as part of ‘Eastern Shield’
Poland to resume anti-personnel mine production, plans border minefields as part of ‘Eastern Shield’
Poland will resume production of anti-personnel mines and plans to lay minefields along its eastern and northern borders as part of a new “Eastern Shield” defense line, the Defense Ministry told daily...
“After leaving the Convention, production of anti-personnel mines is planned on Polish territory. We have identified manufacturers and suppliers of this type of equipment,” the Defense Ministry said, according to Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
The paper said the ministry does not disclose details of orders, but recent investment moves indicate production is likely to take place at Bydgoszcz Electromechanical Works Belma and at Radom-based company Pronit.
Minefields will form part of the “Eastern Shield” defensive system being built on Poland’s eastern and northern frontiers, the report said. Laying the mines will be carried out using Baobab-G and Baobab-K wheeled and tracked scatterable minelaying vehicles, for which contracts have already been signed.
The scale of Poland’s potential needs is illustrated, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna wrote, by Russia’s fortifications on the Zaporizhzhia front in 2023, the so-called Surovikin line. To secure one square kilometer of front, Russian forces used about 1,500 mines; in Poland’s case that could translate into 1.2 million to 1.5 million mines.
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