President Andrzej Duda and Minister of National Defence Mariusz Blaszczak appeared at tests of elements of the first Patriot battery at the Field Training Centre of the Artillery and Armament Training Centre in Toruń. The Patriot batteries will become the basis of the Vistula air defence system.
“It will be a large system integrating three sub- systems with different missile defence ranges in cooperation”, said President Andrzej Duda.
The integration process of the Polish Patriot system is underway in Toruń (System Integration Checkout, or SICO). The SICO process aims to combine elements manufactured in Poland (e.g. launchers, vehicles) with Patriot components ordered from the US.
“It would seem to be impossible, but it is possible”, said president Duda. “In 2018, Minister Błaszczak signed a contract with the US for the sale, manufacture of the first part of the Patriot system for Poland, i.e. the first element of multi-layered interoperable missile and air defence system – the Wisła system, which will be integrated with the Pilica system and the Narew system”, the president said.
Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak noted that the Polish Patriots are already being integrated and the army is commencing activities that will result in the creation of a multi-layered air defence system. He added that once the F-35 aircraft are integrated into the air defence system, the military will get a complete overview of the situation and Poland will get “unique security conditions in Europe”.
The defence ministry chief stressed that the Wisła system, network-centric through cooperation with the IBCS (Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System), is part of the integrated air defence system.
“The middle layer is Patriot, the lower layer is Narew and the lowest layer is Piorun, complemented by Pilica missile sets”, Minister Blaszczak said. He added that the system will reach operational capability in a few months and will be developed, as an order for the second stage of Narew has already been submitted to the US.
Arkadiusz Słomczyński