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Transporters Selected for the Polish Abrams MBTs
According to information released by the Armament Inspectorate of the Polish Ministry of Defence, the final contender in the tank transporter procurement has been selected. The Armed Forces are to acquire up to 109 tank transporter sets, capable of transporting heavy military vehicles.
Back in June, the Armament Inspectorate announced that only two bidders submitted their offers, within the scope of the aforesaid procurement. The above refers to Jelcz Sp. z o.o., and a consortium formed by Dobrowolski Sp. z o.o., Autobox Innovations Sp z o.o. Sp. j, and TOP GUN Anna Goryca companies. Both bidders submitted bids with price-tags of, correspondingly - PLN 520.553 million (including ca. 154.683 million zlotys for the base order, and 365.869 million zlotys for the optional portion), and ca. PLN 387.492 million (including ca. 115.893 million for the base order, and PLN 271.599 million for the optional portion).
Noteworthy, the Ordering Party is willing to allocate PLN 137.443 million, to cover the base order. Thus, the selection of the second offer, submitted by the trilateral consortium was almost certain. Furthermore, the offer placed by Jelcz entailed a guarantee of 48 months. The consortium proposed a guarantee valid for 96 months. The criteria used to rate the offers included price (weight of 75), guarantee (weight of 15), and functional properties (weight of 10). 73.33 and 100 points were the assessments for both offers, as appropriate. Thus, the latter was selected, as the most beneficial one.
The procurement launched in May last year pertains to the acquisition of 31 semi-trailer transporter sets (s a combination of a heavy tractor unit and a mating full trailer or semi-trailer used for transporting tanks and other AFVs) - as the base portion of the order. Another 78 vehicles are envisaged within the scope of the right of option. Noteworthy, the total quantity of those vehicles exceeds the total quantity of their counterparts currently operated by the Polish military. The procurement is critical, in the light of the planned acquisition of 250 M1A2SEPv3 Abrams main battle tanks. The deliveries are to be completed in three years. The first ones are scheduled to happen in October 2026, with the whole procurement expected to be finalized in October 2026. The contractors submitted bids meeting the aforesaid schedule.
The technical requirements assume that new transporters with a payload capacity of at least 60 tonnes would be procured. This would render them capable to transport contemporary main battle tanks, such as Leopard 2, or Challenger 2. Furthermore, all-wheel-drive is required, along with run-flat tyres, and a two-man cabin of the tractor. Extra seats in the cabin and roof hatch would be viewed as extras.
The Polish military currently operates several types of AFV transporters. They include 59 Iveco Trakkers (MP720T50WT and MP720T48WT), six Fauna SLT 50-2 Elefant (procured with the Leopard 2 MBTs), nine Mercedes-Benz Actros 3353AS, and single examples of MAN 40.464 DFAT and VOLVO FL12H. 14 armored transporters based on the Jelcz trucks were additionally acquired in 2019 - optional procurement of another 9 sets, plus three extra tractors, without trailers, has also been envisaged.