Armed Forces
MRAPs for Poland
45 MRAP class vehicles are to be shipped to Poland along with the latest batch of equipment evacuated from Afghanistan by the Polish Armed Forces. MRAP vehicles are resistant to mine explosions. They were given to the Polish Army by the Americans.
According to the information provided by General Mieczysław Gocuł, the Chief of the Polish Army General Staff, withdrawal of the Polish Forces from Afghanistan will require organizing two more multi-modal transport operations. In the first one, the field hospital is to be evacuated to Poland.
Another multi-modal convoy is to be organized at the end of October/beginning of November, later this year. According to Gocuł, the convoy is to take the northern railway route (this is within the scope of US responsibility), through Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Russia, to the St. Petersburg. There it will be loaded onto ships or onto another train. It is also possible to use the Southern route, selection of which is dependent on the Russian-American agreement regarding the transit.
The last batch is going to include 13 Rosomak APCs in their medical variant. The operational vehicles have been withdrawn earlier on. The remaining transportation vehicles and 45 armored MRAP vehicles (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected), that were taken over, within the scope of the agreement signed with the US, to the Polish Special Forces, are also to be included in the last shipment.
According to General Gocuł, Afghanistan operational activities have been completed at the moment of transferring the responsibility for safety to the Afghan authorities. The Polish forces have already completed 76% of the withdrawal process.
Repairs of the equipment evacuated are to be carried out by the 52nd Repairs Batallion in Czarne. The aim is to have all the equipment up and running in January next year.