The XIX MSPO (which is the Polish abbreviation for “International Defence Industry Exhibition”) was held in Kielce, September 5-8, 2011.  For the past decade the show has grown bigger with every year, however the recent Euro crisis downgraded the growth this year.  Nevertheless, there were still 400 exhibitors from 20 countries participating in the show, with scores of foreign official visitors (including for the first time – the European Defense Agency).  Despite the looming general election, internal politics was conspicuously absent from the fair, and the visiting VIPs were of lesser grade than usual.  That latter thankfully – because there was less fuss and security red tape, as well.

Traditionally, the fair was more about the heavy equipment and logistics than small arms, but still the most important players of the European market were all present or accounted for.  Alas, no groundbreaking small arms were shown, though, by domestic or foreign exhibitors.

Bumar Steals the Show
As always was the case in Kielce, the Bumar pavilion, now in center-front Hall C, was the most frequented one, and held the most interesting exhibits.  Bumar – for those not following the European market – is Poland’s leading defense industry holding company, actually owning three quarters of it.  With the exception of the aerospace industry and several independent companies, too big (like intercom specialists WB Electronics, or Huta Stalowa Wola artillery systems supplier) or too small (like up-start specialized equipment trade company Works 11 from Katowice) to swallow – all that goes bang or is connected with things that go bang in Poland is Bumar.

As of 2009, Bumar took over the Future Soldier program, Uhlan 21 – now called the Tytan ISW.  A whole new core business unit called Dywizja Bumar Żołnierz was created within Bumar especially to take care of this very prestigious program, meant to shape the future of the armed forces.  The main companies taking care of the Tytan program are Bumar Żołnierz SA (formerly PCO, the optoelectronics giant), Fabryka Broni Radom-Łucznik (main small arms supplier for the Polish Army), both Tarnow companies: the Zakłady Metalowe Tarnów (machine guns) and OBR SM (sniper rifles), Maskpol SA (NBC protection, ballistic protection and uniforms), aided by non-Bumar entities like WB Electronics and Radmor SA which supply radio and electronic components of the system.  The Tytan, still on a distant horizon right now, will indeed revolutionize the Polish Army, turning soldiers into a net-centric one-man fighting force with full C4I capabilities.  So far elements of the net-warfare system are being created and integrated, as well as modern ballistic and NBC protection, and small arms, including a ground-breaking MSBS-556 Radon modular fully user-configurable battle rifle platform with shared upper receiver for a range of bull-pup and classical configured rifles, different barrel-lengths and other options.  Mockups of 3rd Gen rifles in both configurations were displayed in Kielce, while FB Radom and WAT strive to put it into metal.

OBR SM’s Sniper Rifle Family
Another company taking part in the Future Soldier program is the Tarnow factory – two of them in fact.  A mechanical factory was first established in Tarnow as early as 1917, as a railway stock repair facility, then in 1937 it begun a conversion towards defense industry, within the COP Central Industrial Region concept, but WW2 intervened.  After the war it was rebuilt as a heavy machine gun and light artillery facility, with R&D Center for Machinery (Polish: Ośrodek Badawczo-Rozwojowy Sprzętu Mechanicznego, OBR SM) added in 1971.  The OBR SM was closely interconnected with the parent ZM Tarnow company, and located on the same premises.  In the 1990s they were separated and privatized separately, but then, after some time, both were incorporated into Bumar, and now they form part of the same Bumar’s Division.  ZM Tarnow makes machine guns (GPMGs and HMGs) and automatic cannon, while OBR SM’s specialty became sniper rifles – a novelty on the Polish market, as these were the first ever true sniper weapons to be 100% designed and manufactured in Poland.

The 7.62x51 NATO Bor sniper rifle in its newest integrally suppressed version with the CWKW optical sight from PCO Warsaw.

So far three lines of bolt-action bull-pup configuration repeating rifles are offered, all with Lothar Walther match-grade barrels.  The oldest is the largest one of them – the .50 BMG-chambered WKW Wilk, an anti-materiel rifle introduced into the Army as Tor wz.2004 (Tor being Polish for thorium, a radioactive metal with atomic number 90, as per Polish nomenclature scheme, in which small arms are given cover names of the Mendeleyev table of elements or minerals).  So far less than 100 of these were manufactured and bought by the Army, issued mostly to UOD units for UXO and IED disposal (but rumors have it, that they were already as successful in a counter-sniper application).  Then the Alex line followed, the name coming from Aleksander Leżucha, the series designer.  The Alex has branched into two consecutive rifle lines, the 2008 Bor wz.2008 (Bor for boron, a metalloid with atomic number 5) precision rifle in 7.62 NATO chambering, a two sizes scaled-down Tor.  Last year a “mid-sized” rifle was first presented, in .338 Lapua Magnum, still awaiting acceptance by the Army.  This year another sniper rifle designed in OBR SM has been premiered, still in mock-up form – a semiautomatic SKW-338 bull-pup, the world’s first in this configuration chambered for the .338 Lapua Magnum. So far only the mock-up was exhibited, let’s see what happens, but the rifle’s design is catchy indeed – even if it has a bit of a Barbarella/Buck Rogers streak in it.

LSW Beryl
Despite the opinions that the Beryl wz.96 assault rifle has already hit a stone wall as far as development capabilities, Fabryka Broni keeps the design alive and new branches keep growing on the design tree with each year’s passing.  This time there was an improved prototype of the Beryl Light Support Weapon.  This is a Beryl rifle fitted with a slightly thicker barrel devoid of the classical Kalashnikovian front sight base.  Instead it has a semi-rigid two-piece accessory rail running all along the top, from mid-gas tube to rear sight bracket and then on top of the hinged, stiffened receiver cover – same line, same height all the way.  It was also fitted with a revised receiver, allowing the STANAG magazine adapter to be installed, so that STANAG feed tower Beta-Mags (or any other compatible high-capacity) magazines can be attached to it.  Other than that, the LSW is just another Beryl AR, and can do anything that is needed from a battle rifle, including rifle grenade launching and bayonet work.

PMM portable mine dispenser is a really small device, usually fitted on vehicles and capable of rapidly building a mine barrier in tactical situations. Note part of the Garden of Evil behind the PMM display cube.

Polish Negev?
The fate of the LSW Beryl is uncertain though, as it now has a very powerful competitor.  The LSW program triggered enough interest in SAW/LSW 5.56-caliber weapons to attract IWI of Israel, which proposed that FB Radom take part in manufacturing of the famed Negev SAW – a real, belt-fed machine gun as opposed to a mere machine rifle, like the LSW Beryl.  The Negev hardly needs introduction to the readers of SADJ; it has an enviable track-record so far, serving the Israeli Defense Forces in some of the world’s most difficult environment, fully compatible with the latest ‘sandbox’ deployment environment of the Polish Army.  Polish Negevs – if accepted – would initially comprise 30% of Polish components, with a rising degree of ‘polonization’ along the track.  This was already the case with Radom-assembled Walther P-99s, for which now all metal parts are made in Radom, only the plastic frame being supplied by Walther.  Polish national Police, with over 75,000 P99s already purchased, is the world’s largest force to adopt this successful design – and it shows in mutual Walther-Radom relations.  The newest Walther trigger option, called PPQ, and the new look of the Walther pistol were first offered to Poland two years ago, incorporated in the Rad pistol, with which the FB Radom factory is courting the Polish Army – so far to no avail.

New Start for the Wist-94
The pistol issue continues to linger on in the Polish Army.  The mid-1990s accepted Wist-94/94L pistol was widely criticized for its lack of reliability needed from a life-saving last-ditch self-defense weapon in real warfare conditions.  It was loudly “drummed-out” of the fighting units in Iraq, replaced with its own predecessor, the P-83 Vanad pistol – a Makarov-class (but not Makarov-copy as several misinformed internet sites proclaim it to be) compact semiautomatic chambered in 9×18 Makarov, a cartridge long deemed insufficient for self-defense if in military FMJ hard ball.  However, the troops going to Afghanistan were still armed with the Wist-94 pistols, and soon photos and clips showing stovepipe jams by the magazine full abounded in the Internet, undermining the already low confidence of the troops in their handgun.  Now, after so many years of handing the hot potato to and fro, the manufacturer of the pistol (Prexer of Łódź, a non Bumar-affiliated company) together with the Polish Army’s Materiel Command all of a sudden presented a revolutionary new (considering the previous decade of complete hiatus) version of the Wist-94L pistol.  The “L” in 94L stands for laser.  This was a Special Forces variant with a laser sight pod integrated into the frame in front of the trigger guard.  Now that was en vogue in mid-1990s, but with so many years passed since, the concept became obsolete.  The legacy of the 94L however was a mold for polymer frame with an exchangeable block – both laser and non-laser frames were molded in the same main mold, only the trigger guard/dust cover module was replaced with relevant one.  Now a third “Lego block” was added, with a Picatinny rail instead of the laser pod, allowing accessorizing the pistol with tactical light or light/laser module – or whatever else is needed and can be attached to the rail.  The new frame was the Materiel Command’s requirement, along with the revised magazine follower.  Then the Prexer, on its own, in an unprecedented and surprising bid to product-improve their pistol, decided to press on further with modifications.  The most annoying feature of the original Wist-94 pistol was its diminutive ejection opening, the heritage of the pistol’s designer’s misguided attempt at creating a “dust-free” weapon, instead of dust-proof.  The idea was to seal off the dust by minimizing the size of openings, instead of making the pistol withstand the dust intake and still operate.  The outcome was an ideal stove-pipe jam factory, with multiple spent case rebounds, resulting in re-feeding the empty shell base first into the chamber – and thus creating an extremely dangerous, hard-to-clear in the field failure.  Now the new version radically cures the situation by enlarging the ejection opening almost threefold while at the same time changing the lock-up method to more “dust-friendly.”  The original pistol had a modified closed Browning locking cam with locking ribs on top of the barrel – almost an ideal copy of the CZ 75 design.  Now it is locked into the ejection opening, Glock-style.  Whether it would cure the ailments of the original design we’ll see in the near future, after the military testing is over.

Bumar is now a household name in Poland and one in circulation for over 55 years.  But it was only in the last 10 years that it became a high-roller in Poland’s defense industry as a core company around which a concern of Bumar Group was built.

It all started in 1953 when Bumar Construction Machinery Industrial Union was organized in Warsaw as a state holding company governing construction machinery, manufacturing and trade.  Of course, as was a matter of custom in the Communist Block, ‘construction machinery’ was anything on tracks, especially if mounting a gun.  In other words, it was a cover name for exporting tanks and other military tracked vehicles, built by leading Bumar subsidiary, the Huta Łabędy in Gliwice.  Over the years the emphasis was drifting away from manufacturing – even though Warynski-branded excavators and lifts, as well as tanks, were still manufactured by specialized companies within Bumar especially after Bumar Foreign Trade Enterprise came into being in 1971.  After the fall of Communism, Bumar quickly evolved into a limited liability company and commercialized itself with foreign trade being its main activity.

Polish Defense Industry prior to Bumar Group
In the early 1980s there were as much as 150 enterprises listed as ‘National Defense Enterprises’ (NDEs), while a total of 300 others had some kind of con nections with national defense.  All of these were 100% state-owned, and every nut and bolt they manufactured made its way into the Polish Army or abroad.  The national defense industry development reached its apogee during 1985-1988 when it employed as much as a quarter of a million employees.  At the same time, these were the years when the international political climate warmed, beginning another period of thaw, or détente, between the rival military blocks, with a corresponding fall in defense spending.  The crisis struck the Polish defense industry as early as the late 1980s.  In 1989, a mere year after its peak, the coveted status of NDE has been retained by only 84 plants, compared with 150 in 1985.  At the same time the employment fell from 250,000 in 1987 to just over 180,000, mostly by massive layoffs.

Polish Future Soldier Project, code-named Tytan, is the flagship project by Division Bumar-Soldier, basing mainly on Bumar-Group’s own assets and products: Maskpol’s ballistic and NBC protection, Radom’s small arms, PCO’s optics and Radwar’s C4I.

Political changes started in Poland and eventually leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, pushed the nation’s defense industry past the edge.  Decomposition of the Warsaw Pact nullified the orders almost overnight, both domestic and Warsaw Pact export contracts.  Export outside the Pact diminished as well, as the traditional buyers like Iraq or Libya, were now almost all blacklisted.  It was very difficult to find new markets – the prices offered ceased to be competitive, the offer was not much attractive, and some of the best, most sophisticated and best selling products had to be discontinued when the co-operation ties within the Warsaw Pact were broken.  Both the managerial and technical cadres knew very little about the realities of the free-market economy, and at the same time had to cope with aggressive marketing moves by both the Western and Russian, Chinese or former Warsaw Pact allies’ industries on the foreign markets.

As early as 1989-1991 the first steps were taken to save the defense industry’s assets, at first by their restructuring and ‘conversion’ – a forced change of scope towards civilian products.  Most of the weaker companies did not survive that phase and there were only 31 NDEs left in 1991, but still employing between them as much as 135,000 people.

The situation started to turn critical for the surviving plants, usually gigantic and at the same time crucial to the national defense capabilities.  Their debts skyrocketed while the highly specialized plants won just token contracts for both domestic and export needs.

Largest recent export success of the Bumar-Labedy – the PT-91M Pendekar, an export variant of the Polish PT-91 Twardy Main Battle Tank, 48 of which were sold to Malaysia.

Then in 1993-1996 another program was implemented, aimed at commercialization and debt restructuring of the most endangered plants.  28 state-owned enterprises were converted into state-owned stock commercial companies while the rest were commercialized with the state retaining their controlling share.  The employment fell to 68,000 in 1997 mostly through group layoffs, companies shedding most of their social and other non-production infrastructure and filial companies being trimmed from the parent company.  But still, remaining companies remained at the verge of economic collapse.  The defense industry was not able to earn their keep as employees were taking part in street protests, often turning into violent riots.  Something needed to be done to galvanize them into new life – and quick.

Bouncing Back
The mid-1990s marked the first signs of a significant turn to the better.  The technological modernization of the Army turned from fashionable figure of speech into a hard necessity with Poland’s entry in NATO became real and imminent ‘before this decade is out’-style plan.  ‘Strategic Government Programs’ (like the HUZAR helicopter gunship, and LOARA self-propelled anti-aircraft system) were launched, aimed at creating or implementing a license-production of the modern armaments programs for both domestic use and export.  Much hope was put into the new combat and transport aircraft contracts for the Polish Air Force, which was deemed to revive the ailing Polish aeronautic industry with foreign investments.  The Land Forces had their own wheeled APC program, and needed new tanks, anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles.  The Navy started their GAWRON-class frigate program as early as the 1980s, hoping to regain a first-order Baltic sea power status with it.  Most of these hopes turned out to be in vain as in this brave new world there really were no free lunches.  Modestly cut orders for the new hardware, as well as overhauls and spares for the old one, although gave some breath to the industry, were too little and too late to let it out of the quagmire on its own.  In 1999 the defense sector netted a combined loss of 149.9 million PLN (ca. 50 million USD), with debts amounted to a staggering 1.575 bln PLN (.5 bln USD).  Only about 30% of the manufacturing capabilities were employed for military production.  Despite numerous declarations the Polish defense industry failed to attract their NATO and EU counterparts into any sizeable co-operation efforts during the latter 1990s.  Such cooperation started only several years later.  At the same time, the effort to privatize the NDEs failed due to lack of interest.  But then in 2001 the government started at long last the long awaited technological modernization of the Armed Forces, while at the same time consolidating (concentrating) the defense industry into capital groups.  This was dictated by the European and American experience of the previous decade, when such development increased the competitive potential of the consolidated companies, while at the same time enabling rationalization of the management, costs and workforce.

Indo Defence is a Tri-Service defense show holding the combined Maritime, Air, and Land warfare military shows.  This 2010 event was the 4th Annual Indo Defence exposition and there were over 700 exhibitors from 38 countries with approximately 20,000 attendees from military groups and the trade.  There were a total of 480 plus companies in 17 national pavilions, and the attendees represented over 42 countries.  This year’s event had grown considerably from the 2008 event, which was held in large tent structures at the Halim Perdanakusuma Air Force Base.  The 2010 event was moved indoors at JIExpo, which was a much more suitable venue.

Pavilions for manufacturers from Singapore, Russia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Germany, Poland, South Korea, United States, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom were prominent, and there were many more.  Regarding the quality of the attendees, Indo Defence managed to bring in the brass.  There were high ranking decision makers from many countries as well as the top personnel in the Indonesian military.  Reports from small arms manufacturers were that they had made many good contacts.  Small Arms Defense Journal can attest to that as we had brought thousands of copies of SADJ to the show, and by the second day, we were metering them out.  The enthusiasm for small arms related information in the various militaries attending was very high.

Like most defense shows today, there is a conference attached to the show, and Indo Defence is no exception.  The organizers managed to hit on all the basics that make for happy attendees: keynote speakers who can explain clearly what the needs of the Indonesian military community are; who can identify the priorities today; and try to show their view of future defense priorities.  It is difficult for the industrial complex to provide the necessary product and solutions to the military needs without having some idea of the direction they need to be addressing.  The conference had three faces – ground forces, air forces, and maritime forces.  Influential members of all groups were in attendance at the show.  Exhibitors were also invited to present papers and product announcements, and of course, the popular air show was performed overhead, including the RAAF Roulettes.

It takes a lot of work to stage a successful military show, and making a regional show attractive to the rest of the world shows that the diligence necessary is part of the promoter’s skill set.  Indo Defence has not failed to impress, and the three times we have attended we found many contacts and saw a lot of business being done by the vendors.  Likewise, attendees told us they were pleased with the contacts they were making in modernizing and maintaining their systems.

Armscor, the Arms Corporation of the Philippines, showed many of their civilian related firearms, as well as cross-over capability on modern combat shotguns including the M30 series; and many variations of the ever-popular 1911 series pistol. (www.armscor.com.ph)

Bumar Group presented their Beryl, Beryl Commando, and Mini-Beryl rifle systems. These are Kalashnikov based next-generation rifles in 5.56x45mm. Their PM series submachine guns and handguns were also discussed. (bumar.com)

The Cilas SLD 500 Surveillance and Sniper Detection Laser System is an innovative product from this 40 year old French company. The basic concept is that using a 360 degree panorama mount, the laser unit can detect optical systems that are actively deployed in the direction of the SLD 500 by using backscatter technology. Simply put, if sniper’s optics, surveillance optics, or opto-electronics are being pointed at the SLD 500 location, they will be identified and the high-definition camera in the system will give a clear location and picture of the threat. Essentially, this is a preventative system, as opposed to a shot locator, which requires there to be a round fired before that can operate. (www.cilas.com)

Cubic is one of the world’s leading combat training groups and their training simulator booth for small arms warfare was constantly busy. (www.cubic.com)

PT Dahana (Persero) is an Indonesia explosive manufacturing facility that concentrates on mining and constructions sectors, but has a large military crossover in blast effect bombs and grenade detonators. They have a full line of shaped charges, detcord, non-els, pentolite boosters, and their signature emulsion explosive, Dayagel. (www.dahana.com)

EOST, Electrical Optical Systems Company, is a South Korean based R&D group that was presenting their Thermal Imaging electronics. The TWS II (shown) is an optical 3x magnification unit with a 6x/12x electronic zoom. Field of view is 13.3 degrees diagonal, with a focus from 1 meter to infinity. This is an uncooled unit with an operating temperature range of -35C to +50C, and a 4 hour battery life. (www.eosystem.com)

Hanwah Corporation of South Korea had a modified Daewoo K2 piston operated 5.56mm rifle, as well as their new K12 7.62x51mm belt-fed machine gun. The K12 weighs 12 kg, with an overall length of 1,110mm, and a barrel length of 584.5mm. Rate of fire is 850-950 rpm. (http://english.hanwhacorp.co.kr/)

Pindad's SPR-3 is a dedicated 7.62x51mm bolt action sniping rifle with an effective range of 900 meters.

Pindad’s SPG-3 grenade machine gun uses standard 40x53mm ammunition like the MK19 or HK GMG. Tripod or vehicle mounted, the SPG-3 provides 2,200 meter range in a 33kg package. Rate of fire is 325-375rpm.