Polish Industry Supports Modernization of the Polish Army. Innovations for the Armed Forces - Awarded.

The gala involved numerous highly-ranked representatives of the Polish Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defence, including the Polish Ministry of Defence Secretary of State, Bartosz Kownacki. During his speech at the event, Minister Kownacki stressed the fact that creating the capabilities possessed by a modern and strong army requires a large potential on the part of the defence industry.

The competition is focused on the effort to identify the new solutions that may be utilized in the Polish Army. From the very beginning we have been making steps towards activation of the scientific circles, defence industry entities and the private persons.

KLW-1 ASTERIA Thermal Imaging Camera won the 1st place award in the Industry category. The device is being manufactured by the PCO S.A company. It is a cooled thermal vision camera, the purpose of which is to be used in fire control and observation and reconnaissance systems. The camera features a high quality cooled III generator sensor, along with selection of the field of analysis for the imagery automation systems.

1st Place in the science category has been taken by the Gdansk University of Technology, presenting the OPM Głuptak Anti-Mine Protection System. The system is used to identify and destroy sea mines, detected by other means. The device may be mounted on a specialized mine-hunting vessel or other vessels that are capable of carrying out mine-hunting operations. It may also be used in harbours, from land-based locations.

In the individual categories, two second prizes were granted, equally placed, without defining who took the first position. Marek Jankiewicz took the second place in this category, designing a product under the name “Monitoring the condition and providing faultless operation of propulsion and auxiliary devices in vessel systems”. The solution in question increases the level of reliability of the aforementioned devices that have a direct impact on operation of the ships. It also makes it possible to limit the noise level emitted by the engine room, in the hydro-acoustic dimension.

Another submission taking the second place in this category is the one related to the multi-fuel internal combustion Szymkowiak’s engine, with a variable compression rate. This design was submitted by Mirosław Szymkowiak. The main feature of the engine, with variable compression rate that may be externally set in a fluid manner, during the motor operation, is the way in which the piston movement is translated into revolutions of the crankshaft placed in between the cylinder rows.

In the current edition of the competition 66 submissions were accepted in general, in industry, science and individual categories. In each of the category 1st, 2nd and 3rd position awards were granted (respectively for taking places from 1st to 3rd), along with distinctions for the projects taking the positions from 4th to 6th. The competition chapter decided to, this year, to grant two 2nd grade awards in the individual category, without granting the 1st grade award.

The “Innovations for the Polish Armed Forces” competition is addressed to the Polish businesses, research facilities, educational facilities and natural persons. Concepts, ideas, project and finalized products that may be used by the Polish Army may all be submitted to take part in the competition.

List of the awarded products

Industry Category
1st place – KLW-1 ASTERIA Thermal Imaging Camera - PCO S.A

2nd place – Maverick – Innovative anti-corrosion protection for military equipment

3rd place – SIRC Sp. z o.o – Silicon, microwave integrated 10 Ghz circuitry

4th place – Robotics Inventions Sp. z o.o – Autonomous inspection robots swarm

5th place – Teldat Sp. z o.o. sp.k – The net-centric Jaśmin ICT platform as an innovative, complex, coherent and unique system of systems, within the scope of command support and automation and communications, dedicated to be used at all of the command levels, down to the level of individual soldiers.

6th place – Wojskowe Zakłady Łączności Nr 1 S.A. [Military Communication Works] - Mobile communications node.

Science Category

1st Place – Gdansk University of Technology – OPM Głuptak anti-mine protection suite.

2nd Place – Military Institute of Technical Engineering – Explosive mine neutraliser 

3rd Place – Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals, Poznan Branch, Central Laboratory of Batteries and Cells – BTR Thermal Battery – 06 for precision guided munitions, including the PIORUN MANPADS system (derivative of the GROM MANPADS).

4th Place – Air Force Institute of Technology – Innovative shock absorbing system controlled with a magnetic field.

5th Place – Electron Technology Instsitute – Polish microwave transistor, PolHEMT AlGaN/GaN, for radar applications.

6th Place – Military Institute of Technical Engineering – TEChrom™ Termo-Electro-Chrome device

Individual Category

2nd Place – Multi-fuel Szymkowiak internal combustion engine with variable compression rate

2nd Place – Marek Jankiewicz – Monitoring the condition and providing faultless operation of propulsion and auxiliary devices in vessel systems.

3rd place – Mariusz Księżyk, Paweł Niegodajew – Ultramobile wheeled combat robot 

4th Place – Maciej Matyjasiak – Unmanned water resistant UAV reconnaissance platform for the special forces

5th Place – Ryszard Stanisław Czarnecki – Mechanical diving system, with short decompression capacity and a wide scope of applications – from HAHO to 100 meters underwater. 

6th Place – Jakub Osiński – PROSOL Project – Exclusion of possibility of having soldiers being shot during the foreign deployment and during the internal operations.

Besides the above mentioned awards, a special award has also been received. Olga Malinkiewicz received the award granted by the Chief of the Inspectorate for Implementation of Innovative Defence Technologies, for her research in the field related to perovskite materials.