Polish military received the first batch of 15 serial tracked infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) Borsuk. And this is an important achievement for the local defense industry, which independently developed and manufactured this equipment.
As Defence24 reports, the armored vehicles will go to the 15th Mechanized Brigade in Giżycko. Interestingly, they belong to an order for 111 units placed only in March 2025, but even then delivery was specified from 2025 to 2029.
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Regarding quantity, 15 vehicles were delivered in 2025, another 3 will be in 2026, and in 2027-2029 deliveries of 33 and 55 units respectively are planned, along with upgrading 6 prototypes to serial standard. Overall, the first contract cost 6.57 billion zlotys, or $1.81 billion.
Poland says it's preparing a new order for Borsuk, and is also working on other variants, such as command, support, and others. This concerns both modifications that will retain the ability to swim and without them, meaning most likely with enhanced protection.
Defense Express notes that producing serial samples of its own IFV is a great achievement for the Polish defense industry. Of course, production rates are not impressive yet, but some time is needed to deploy and scale industrial capacities.
Some may point to the high price, namely approximately $16 million per unit by rough calculation, which is more expensive than any European analogue. However, such a sum includes deployment of infrastructure, production, supply chains, and other things, so this is a good example that creating your own analogue is a very expensive pleasure.
Regarding Borsuk itself, it's an amphibious IFV weighing 28 tons with protection against large-caliber 14.5mm bullets in the frontal projection and against armor-piercing 7.62mm from the sides. Armament is located in the Polish remotely controlled ZSSW-30 turret and consists of a 30mm Mk 44 Bushmaster II cannon, 7.62mm UKM-2000C machine gun, and two launchers for Israeli Spike ATGM.
It's also worth recalling that Poland is currently working on its own heavy IFV Ratel, which should withstand fire from 30mm cannon. Perhaps well see additional orders for armored vehicles within the European SAFE program, part of whose funds will go to Ukraine.
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