The 🇵🇱 Polish Army plans to field 250 M1A2 SEPv3 Abrams by 2026 to completely outfit their 18th Mechanized Division (arrayed in SE Poland between Warsaw and the Ukrainian border). Here is a notional Abrams tank company based on current published structures. 1/
The 18th's Leo 2s will shift to the 34th Armored Cav Bde, making the 11th Armd Cav Div in SW Poland (near Germany) an all-Leo division again. The Leo 2 units have traditionally been the hub of German-Polish combined arms interoperability. The 18th's T-72s will be phased out. 2/
The Polish currently operate the Leopard 2A5, Leopard 2A4 and the Leopard 2PL (modernized 2A4s). The intent is to completely upgrade the 2A4s into 2PLs, and maybe further down the road replace them after the less capable PT-91s and T-72M1s have been replaced. 3/
The PT-91 Twardy is an upgrade of the T-72M1 (which Poland also fields). Most PT-91 battalions are stationed on the border with Russia's Kaliningrad. The initial consequence of fielding the Abrams will be making the majority of the old T-72M1s redundant. 4/
Still, after the introduction of the Abrams, the Polish Army will field 3 or 4 broad tank families (M1A2 SEPv3, PT-91 Twardy, a limited number of T-72M1s, Leopard 2PL/2A5s). But, they will largely be segregated to their own divisions so no brigades sharing Abrams and T-72s. 5/
Poland is still continuing its Wilk program to field a new MBT. The 250 Abrams were separate discretionary procurement. The winner of the program will phase out the rest of the T-72s & PT-91s. Options could include the 🇰🇷 K2PL, 🇺🇸 Abrams, 🇹🇷 Atlay, or 🇫🇷🇩🇪 MGCS. 6/
On the Tank Company structures, the westernization at the tactical-level is very apparent. With 4-tank platoons (and associated 2-tank sections for maneuvering, rather than Soviet style 3-tank plts), organic armored recovery vehicles, a company train, and armored ambulances. 7/
These Tank Coy graphics are based on published TO&Es and may differ in practice. The main difference between PT-91/T-72 & Leopard Coys other than 3-man vs 4-man crews is Leopard Coys have an ambulance squad with German M113s while PT-91 units consolidate ambos at battalion 8/
Above the company, Polish Tank Battalions are generally meant to have 4 maneuver companies (14 tanks per coy + 2 btn HQ tanks = 58 tanks per btn). Brigades with MBTs generally have 1 or 2 tank battalions depending on the brigade. 9/
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