Saab has signed a contract with the Polish Ministry of Defence’s procurement authority for delivery of the Carl-Gustaf M4 weapon, ammunition and training equipment.
The order value corresponds to SEK 12.9 billion and the contract period is 2024-2027. The order is expected to be booked by Saab before the end of Q2 2024.
“I am proud of our close relationship with the Polish Armed Forces and that Saab can continue to strengthen Poland’s ground combat capability and national defence with our world-leading Carl-Gustaf system,” says Saab’s CEO and President Micael Johansson.
The contract is expected to be effective by the end of Q2 2024, subject to the fulfilment of certain external conditions.
Saab’s Carl-Gustaf is a man-portable, multi-role weapon system with a wide range of ammunition types, making it suitable for a variety of tasks.
I noticed the person in the attached image, is not wearing any armour or webbing (wimp!). Firing a Carl-Gustav warshot is not a pleasant experience! Your body gets blasted by a concussive wave, which feels like a punch to the sternum. It can and does on some people push all the air out of their lungs. Continuous firing can and will do internal damage to liver, kidney etc. In training you are limited to the number of shots you can fire for some of these reasons. On OPs it will be clearly different. But I would suggested as a starter,… Read more »
The old Carl Gustav was a bugger for that too, always preferred LAW, mind there was a fair kick from that too.
Before Afghan 2013 I had never fired one in anger. We “borrowed” one from the Canadians. Muggins had to carry the CG, plus my radios and laser for an Op, the rest of the team carried the ammo. Having to tab 20k, lugging the CG plus your normal battle kit and provisions for 5 days wasn’t fun. Mind you spect’ the guys on the receiving end would have said the same!
Think Milan was worst of all, next to an RPG. Once you fired one you never wanted to go near one again lol
I heard that Wombat was a sod.
Burnt off facial hair, no eyebrows
Never saw one myself.
Yup, first one I trained on, lethal at the rear, not so much the front!
Again never fired Milan, banged off a few Javelin though.
Great insight
That’s what happens when you contract out marketing and promotional work to the cheapest bidder…
I wonder if the newer versions have overcome that with a full motor fire once clear of the user?
Clearly not ideal if the user is damaged on firing as it will take the user longer to recover for reload and/or other operational necessities.
It would be great if they introduced a soft launch. “Bring up the PIAT!”
That would presumably have a range effect?
It shouldn’t hurt the range. For example if you fit a small bag of propellant in the munition’s exhaust. Which has enough omph to push it out of the tube. Which after a timed time delay, activates the main charge after the munition has left the tube. If scaled and timed correctly. The energy felt by the firer should be greatly reduced. Plus the effect on the munition should be seamless. However, how does this affect the munitions accuracy? I guess not too much. As Saab are offering a munition that can be fired from an enclosed space. Which must… Read more »
Can I have one for Christmas?
Big order. Another example of Poland taking its defence needs seriously. Russia is estimated to now be spending around 30% of it’s GDP on defence and is forecast to out produce the West by at least 3x for artillery and mortar shells this year and will be 5-6x western production by 2026. Now the big question is how much longer can Ukraine hold out? When will the West wake up to the danger of further Russian adventurism and Putin’s desire for empire? The UK should have put in an emergency defence budget and preparation order in 2022, instead we have… Read more »
Concerning indeed, the delusion about tax cuts which actually aren’t anyways is beyond me. The Ukranians are fighting our war presently and we should be using the time available to try to ensure we don’t have to fight it directly very soon. I can seriously see Trump seeing a Euro Russian conflict to his advantage scarily. He will see it as keeping Russia bottled up leaving him free to confront China while of course selling military equipment to Europe no doubt at inflated rates as a bonus to US industry while weakening European an economic competitor. The MAGA mob will… Read more »
All good points.
Trump is anti-war. Its bad for business confidence. That’s one of his big selling points and a constant refrain of his, which is gaining more and more traction with an American public sick of foreign interventions. He can only do that if Europe picks up its game and starts to look after things in its own back yard more. Fundamentally I agree with this. Europe has free-loaded off the US for too long and made us a bit player in NATO and allowed us to make bad investment choices since the fall of the Iron curtain. In fact I’d argue… Read more »
Is that really correct for artillery and mortar shell production ? Russia has been turning to other county’s such as North Korea for shells
Agree with all that, Mr B – but how long can Russia’s economy support that level of defence spending? No matter what Russia says, their economy has be hit severely by Western sanctions. It’s only a fraction of the West’s (NATO’s) economy. China, NK and Iran aren’t going to supply them with munitions for nowt. And they won’t want paying in Rubles or Yuan either…
Considering the recent farce visited upon us (N.A.T.O. as whole) by Germany, I was thinking how fortunate to have Poland standing up.
Two thumbs up.
NATO would wipe out Russian forces. Its taking all of their effort to hold a small amount of Ukraine. Maybe you need to be more aware of our capabilities.