Four Bidders Willing to Deliver IFF Systems for the Polish Land Forces
Four entities have submitted their requests to participate in the procurement procedure aimed at the acquisition of IFF markers and ID panels for land platforms - Defence24 was told by major Krzysztof Płatek, spokesman for the Armament Inspectorate of the Polish MoD. The systems would enhance the interoperability levels among the allies.
Markers and panels are to provide the land forces with an ability to identify the land-based combat platforms, within the scope of designating friends/foes/unknown platforms, in the air-to-ground and ground-to-ground setting, with the use of the available thermal imaging systems that the Polish Armed Forces operate.
The tendering procedure concerns the procurement of 165 IFF marker/panel packages for the land platforms. The package would include: Combat Identification Panel [CIP], Thermal Identification Panel [TIP], Thermal Identification Beacon [TIB], and spares package [ZCzZ], The whole tender is executed as a negotiation, it has not been divided and extra options are not envisaged.
The deadline for submitting the offer has expired on 28th January. As announced by the Armament Inspectorate, the following entities have submitted their bids:
- PCO S.A. with Adventure Lights Inc.
- MILDAT Sp. z o.o.
- Siltec Sp. z o.o. and Ha3o Krzysztof Huras.
- Megmar Logistics & Consulting Sp. z o.o.
Price (weight of 80), and guarantee (weight of 20) would be used to assess the offers. The delivery of the aforesaid systems would make it possible to secure the ongoing requirements that the land forces may have within the scope of identifying of own vehicles by other land and air platforms, operated both by the Polish military, as well as by the allies.
Equipment as such is especially relevant when one considers the fact that Poland is currently operating a lot of Soviet-made platforms (T-72 MBTs, BMP-1, BRDM). Any defensive operation would probably also involve the allies using thermal imaging targeting systems - integrated on both the land platforms and on the aircraft as well. Thus, it is required to ensure that proper means of identification are available to the blue forces, to avoid blue-on-blue/friendly fire scenarios.