SAN PROJECT “Invisible and stinging”. The Polish army wants to build such drones

Deputy Minister of National Defense Cezary Tomczyk announced on Wednesday that the San project will be announced later this year, which – as he said – is to be another layer of protection of our airspace against drones. In the coming years, billions of zlotys will be spent on the development of such technologies, he added.

During Wednesday's briefing in Lublin, the deputy minister was asked by journalists about the construction of a Polish drone technology center. Tomczyk announced that the Center for Autonomous Systems – OSA for short – will be established in Warsaw, but will cover many places in Poland. In his opinion, it is to be the “first accelerator” of new solutions for the army.

I think we will close the case in January at the latest. I would like Polish drones in the future to be just like wasps: sometimes invisible, sometimes stinging, always dangerous – added Tomczyk.

He emphasized that In the coming years, many billions of zlotys will be spent on the development of drone and anti-drone technologies in Poland. – These will be huge investments. The first ones will be announced later this year. By the end of this year, we will announce the San project, which will be another layer of protection of our airspace, but in the field of protection against drones – explained the deputy head of the Ministry of National Defense.

At the end of November, Deputy Prime Minister and Head of the Ministry of National Defence, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, informed about the application to the European Commission to obtain financial resources under the EU SAFE program, which aims to strengthen the defense of EU member states. According to the head of the Ministry of National Defense, the package includes many tasks related to the Eastern Shield: these include: San anti-drone defense program and additional equipment for the Border Guard and police.

Deputy Minister Tomczyk was also asked on Wednesday about training drones for Polish soldiers. He informed that they are already being delivered to the units and thanks to this, soldiers will gradually prepare “to be able to switch to these real drones, because school drones are sometimes disposable drones.”

A soldier must be ready to switch to combat drones, which are often worth several or tens of thousands of zlotys and are real drones of operational importance, not training ones, he emphasized.

Tomczyk also referred to Tuesday's information from the General Staff of the Polish Army that talks are ongoing with the Ukrainian side regarding the transfer of MIG-29 aircraft. The Border Guard said that the transfer of aircraft is related to, among others, with no prospect of their further modernization in the Polish Armed Forces. As emphasized, there is no final decision on this matter yet.

– We believe that we need to help Ukraine, but it is worth doing it in a wise way so that the Polish army can benefit from it, because Ukraine is our ally and we also want to be an ally – Tomczyk commented on Wednesday.

He added that some time ago Poland began to strive for key technologies for us, e.g. drones, reconnaissance systems, anti-drone technologies, to be “part of this solution”. – There seems to be good will on the Ukrainian side here. I think we will reach an agreement, he said. (PAP)

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