Polish APCs may receive 30mm Mk 44/S Bushmaster II cannon

By TOC

WARSAW, ($1=4.09 Polish Zlotys)– Polish wheeled APCs Rosomak may soon begin to upgrade their combat capabilities by installing a new unmanned tower ZSSW-30, learned BulgarianMilitary.com, citing Defense24. According to the Polish web portal, the consortium implementing this project has already been invited to negotiate the delivery of this system.

Polish APCs may receive 30mm Mk 44/S Bushmaster II cannon
Photo credit: RTi.org

“As for the ZSSW-30 tower, we are now after the preliminary tests and qualification tests have ended positively. what price they will want to pay for this contract so that we can modernize the Polish armed forces so that we have equipment with unprecedented capabilities. In the case of ZSSW, perhaps we can talk about such equipment. “Until the negotiations are over, I will not be able to talk about the details. I can only promise that efficient negotiations will lead to the possibility of unmanned towers for those Wolverines who are already prepared for this,” Col. Dr. Arthur Kuptel, Head of the Armaments Inspectorate, told reporters.

It should be added here that it is most likely an invitation to negotiations because the tower is being built as part of the main interests of State Security. The ZSSW-30 tower was built as part of a development carried out by the consortium HSW [leader] and WB Electronics. First of all, it is intended for Rosomak armored personnel carriers, which are to be introduced into military units.

The system is armed with a 30 mm cannon Mk 44 / S Bushmaster II, with the ability to use programmable ammunition and conversion to a caliber of 40 mm, paired launcher Spike-LR and 7.62 mm machine gun UKM-2000. It also has an advanced fire control system with an auto tracker and two optoelectronic warheads for the shooter and commander [hunter-killer / killer-killer system].

The Mk44 Bushmaster II is a 30 mm chain gun manufactured by Northrop Grumman. It is a derivative of the 25 mm M242 Bushmaster, and uses 70% of the same parts as the M242 while increasing the firepower by as much as 50% with the 20% increase in caliber size. The barrel is chromium-plated for extended life. The gun uses standard GAU-8 Avenger ammunition that is available in API [Armor-Piercing Incendiary], HEI [High-Explosive Incendiary] and APFSDS-T [Armor-Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot-Tracer] variants.

The gun can be converted to a caliber of 40×180 mm, which involves changing the barrel and a few key parts, to use the SuperShot 40 cartridge. It can also be converted to use the 30×170 mm RARDEN cartridge.

The framework contract for the supply of towers, which accompanied the development work, was recently extended from 208 to 341 units. The towers will first be installed on the base version of Rosomak, which are available to the Polish Armed Forces, but according to available information there are about a hundred of them, so to complete the order, it will be necessary to purchase additional vehicles.

This is related to the ongoing negotiations to join the PGZ consortium and Rosomak SA. There is some difficulty in overcoming this, as the standard motors that the base KTO is equipped with are no longer in production, so you will either have to purchase Rosomak XP transporters licensed from Rosomak SA or modify the standard version by installing a different engine.

It should also be remembered that the ZSSW towers are not – at least for now – designed to replace the Hitfist towers used today by Rosomaks. Thus, KTO battalions equipped with these vehicles have very weak anti-tank protection, relying only on a small number of Spike-LR ATGM launchers, and the integration of Hitfist towers with ATGM was abandoned several years ago.

It should therefore be important to enhance their anti-tank capabilities by supplying additional portable ATGMs and/or upgrading Hitfist towers, adapting them to carry ATGMs, or replacing them with ZSSW-30. The latter, in a modified version, will also be used by the future Borsuk BMP.

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