Mariusz Błaszczak officially granted the weapons at a ceremony in the northeastern town of Gołdap on Friday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Poland’s Mała Narew (Small Narew) new-generation short-range air defence system comprises the UK-produced Common Anti-Air Modular Missile (CAMM) weaponry and iLauncher missile launchers, according to officials.
The CAMM iLaunchers are integrated with a Polish Jelcz truck chassis, the PAP news agency reported.
The defence minister said in Gołdap: “It’s an excellent piece of equipment, a multi-channel solution and intuitive to handle.”
He added that “each of Mała Narew’s iLaunchers houses eight CAMM missiles, and thus can target eight different air threats at the same time.”
By contrast, Poland’s previous, Soviet-era short-range air defence sets could target one air threat, Błaszczak said.
He added that the Mała Narew system had earlier been deployed in the southeastern city of Zamość, and now another set of equipment would be stationed in the northeastern town of Gołdap.
Błaszczak told reporters: “I am very pleased that modern equipment has reached the Polish army.”
Earlier this month, the defence minister signed contracts for the purchase of over 1,000 UK-made CAMM-ER missiles and 138 launchers for the short-range air defence system, due to be delivered between 2027 and 2035, the PAP news agency reported.
The short-range system represents one layer of Poland’s projected air defences, located between the medium-range Wisła system with US-made Patriot launchers, and the very short-range Pilica and Pilica+ systems, equipped with Polish Grom (Thunder) and Piorun (Thunderbolt) missiles, according to officials.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, launching the largest military campaign in Europe since World War II.
Friday is day 569 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP