HSW Consortium Willing To Create a Scattered Mine-Laying System for the Army

As we were informed by Col. Sławomir Lewandowski, Chief Specialist at the Armament Inspectorate, a single submission has been made within the procedure, the goal of which would be to implement the work related to development of the Baobab-K scattered mine-laying system - the said submission was made by Huta Stalowa Wola, leader of a consortium also involving the BZE BELMA S.A., WITI Wrocław and JELCZ Sp. z o. o.. entities. Deadline for submitting the offers expired on 25th April 2017.

Only a single submission has been made within the procedure, the goal of which would be to carry out the Baobab-K R&D project, by Huta Stalowa Wola S.A., acting as a leader of a consortium also involving the BZE BELMA S.A., WITI Wrocław and Jelcz Sp. z o.o. entities.

The procedure, the purpose of which is to carry out the R&D work, began back in March this year. The order concerns implementation of the design and development stage, with a particular emphasis placed on creation of a prototype and technical documentation of the Baobab-K scattered mine-laying system. The study itself is to be implemented in stages, while completion of the individual stages shall be confirmed with relevant tests and research, confirming the fact that the vehicle meets the requirements defined by the Army 

According to the announcement made, the platform is going to be used for the purpose of carrying out scattered mine laying, and creating mine fields with depth of at least 180 meters and density of at least 0.15-1.2 mines per linear meter. The vehicle is expected to be based on a 8x8 platform, with the cabin being armoured in line with STANAG 4569 level 1 standard. The vehicle is going to feature a platform with 6 electrically controlled launchers (automatic or semi-automatic mine laying, level 1 of ballistic protection), with automatic hydraulic support extension system, allowing the operator to automaticfally change the vehicle status from transport to combat one, and vice-versa.

The offer placed by the consortium has been presented during the last year’s edition of the MSPO defence exhibition held in Kielce. HSW also showcased its Baobab-K mine-laying platform based on the Jelcz 6x6 truck. The system has also been developed with the Polish Territorial Defence elements in mind. At the moment the Polish Army has only a minor quantity of the Kroton mine-layers, based on a tracked chassis. 

It should be noted that the technical assumptions concerning the system date back to the year 2010. Back in August 2015, the Armament Inspectorate also announced a procedure, the goal of which would be to implement the design and development stage, nonetheless no valid submissions have been received by the MoD, before the deadline defined at the time. Another procedure began in November 2015. Thus, this is the third attempt at implementation of this phase of the Baobab-K programme.