Poland has planning to buy more infantry weapons for its armed forces. They have ordered more Grot C16 assault rifles chambered in 5.56 mm caliber and Vis 100 semi-automatic pistols chambered in 9 mm caliber. Both weapons are manufactured at Fabryka Broni-Łucznik Radom. Polish Armed Forces signed the contract on 30 September.
“By 2022, every third soldier of the Polish Armed Forces will be equipped with the modern Grot rifle manufactured by Fabryka Broni in Radom”, said Polish Minister of National Defence Mariusz Błaszczak at a signing ceremony for the order.
This is an extended deal that is correlated to the contract signed in September 2017. That contract included 32,000 MSBS Grot rifles chambered in 5.56×45 mm to be delivered by March 2020. The worth of the deal was PLN290 million ($72.43 million). This deal has now been extended with the ordering of 18,000 more rifles worth PLN162 million over the 2020–2022 period.
GROT Rifles
Most of the 26,645 Grot rifles so far delivered are used by the newly formed Territorial Defence Forces (Wojska Obrony Terytorialnej: WOT). Meanwhile, a December 2018 contract for Vis 100 9×19 mm pistols has been extended to a total of 19,900 pistols worth PLN49 million. According to the contract, the first 3,178 pistols are to be delivered by 15 December this year.
Last month, the WOT delivered 1,412 Grot rifles to the first Polish Land Forces units. The units that directly received those weapons were the 6th Airborne Brigade and the 25th Air Cavalry Brigade. The new firearms are replacing those units’ 5.56 mm WZ.96 Beryl rifles.
The Grot C16 assault rifle is part of a modular weapon system that includes various calibers of classic and bullpup-type firearms developed by Fabryka Broni. Since 2017, over 26,600 Grot rifles have been delivered to Poland’s Territorial Defence Forces.
The Vis 100 semi-automatic pistol chambered in 9×19 mm cartridge is a Browning action firearm with the barrel locking in the ejection port and hammer-fired construction. The weapon has an aluminum alloy frame and is equipped with a MIL-STD-1913 (Picatinny) accessory rail. The pistol is fed from 15-round magazines with an option for a 20-round magazine.
