“Honey Badger” and Flying “swords”: What Poland showcased at MSPO 2026 Limansky’s analysis

The 34th MSPO 2026 defence exhibition is being held in the Polish city of Kielce from September 8 to 11. Companies from 43 countries are showcasing around 1,200 weapons and military equipment systems. Among the highlights are UAVs capable of operating without satellite navigation, heavy infantry fighting vehicles resembling tanks, and combat anti-aircraft lasers.

Armoured “Honey Badger”

In terms of the number of exhibits, visitors and delegations, MSPO ranks third after similar exhibitions in Paris and London.

Polish companies are presenting a large number of systems at the exhibition. One of the main new products is a full-scale demonstrator of the CBWP heavy infantry fighting vehicle, developed as part of a project previously known under the codename Ratel (“Honey Badger”). The heavy IFV was presented by Huta Stalowa Wola, part of the state-owned Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa defence conglomerate.

Externally, the Polish heavy IFV somewhat resembles the US M2 Bradley. The hull’s frontal armour plates and the turret have steeply sloped surfaces. The vehicle will be equipped with the remotely operated ZSSW-30 turret, an MTU 8V199 TE23 turbo-diesel engine producing 1,100 horsepower, and a 30mm Mk44S Bushmaster II automatic cannon, with the option of replacing it with a 40mm gun. The cannon has a range of up to 2 km. The armament also includes twin Israeli Spike-LR anti-tank guided missiles with a range of more than 4 km, as well as a 7.62mm UKM-2000C machine gun mounted coaxially with the cannon and manufactured by Poland’s ZM Tarnów.

Programmable ammunition for the automatic cannon can also be used against UAVs, while the Spike missiles are capable of loitering over a designated area. The heavy IFV has a crew of three, while the troop compartment can accommodate eight infantrymen.

However, unlike the Bradley and Borsuk, which weigh 22–28 tonnes, the new heavy IFV will weigh more than 40 tonnes, rising to as much as 50 tonnes with an add-on armour package. Heavy infantry fighting vehicles are therefore something of a cross between conventional IFVs and tanks – the designers themselves explicitly compare the Ratel with the latter.

The experience of the war in Ukraine, particularly the need to counter UAV attacks, prompted the designers to increase the vehicle’s weight and strengthen its modular armour at the expense of manoeuvrability and amphibious capability. The Ratel heavy IFV is also expected to receive enhanced mine protection, including specialised blast-resistant seats.

The Ratel’s frontal armour is also designed to withstand hits from 30mm rounds at a distance of 500 metres. It will be fitted with explosive reactive armour, including Poland’s Pangolin modular system. The Polish heavy IFV is also expected to receive the Obra-3 laser warning and protection system, integrated with a smoke grenade launcher, as well as a system providing protection against nuclear, biological and chemical threats.

Ratel is one of the names for the honey badger, a member of the mustelid family known for its ability to take on predators many times its size. The honey badger’s remarkable resilience is largely due to its very thick skin, which acts as a kind of “armour”. Its skin is also highly flexible, significantly mitigating the effects of attacks. The honey badger is also highly resistant to snake venom.

Despite the additional armour, the Ratel heavy IFV is expected to retain high mobility across difficult terrain, including the ability to negotiate slopes of up to 30 degrees, trenches more than two metres wide and water obstacles more than 1.2 metres deep.

There is also an option to equip the new heavy IFV with a 105mm gun, in which case it could be used as a fire-support vehicle.

The new Polish heavy IFV was developed under the EU’s SAFE funding programme, which requires at least 65% of the technologies used to be developed within the European Union.

The heavy IFV has been under development since 2023, and Polish media have compared the difficult development process to a “Hitchcock thriller”. Options for developing a heavy IFV based on the Turkish Otokar Tulpar, German KF41 Lynx and South Korean AS-21 Redback were considered, but the project ultimately settled on a Polish design based on the domestically developed Borsuk amphibious IFV and the chassis of the Polish Krab self-propelled howitzer.

At present, only one Ratel demonstrator exists. It now faces intensive testing, while serial production of the Polish heavy IFV is scheduled to begin in 2029. The Polish Army plans to procure 700 of these vehicles.

Flying “swords”

Considerable attention in Kielce was also devoted to a type of weapon that has fundamentally changed the nature of modern warfare – unmanned aerial vehicles.

Another new system showcased at the exhibition was the Gladius 2 jet-powered strike UAV, also known as the Warmate 30. Gladius is the name of the short sword carried by Roman legionaries and designed for close combat.

The earlier version of the Gladius is already in service with the Polish Army. The new model features a reduced radar signature and will have a range of up to 300 km. In addition, the Gladius 2 uses a flying-wing configuration and is capable of operating at extremely low altitudes, further enhancing its stealth.

Another important feature is the UAV’s ability to operate without satellite navigation, using artificial intelligence-based solutions and an onboard computer.

The Gladius 2 carries a 30kg warhead, which can be high-explosive fragmentation, shaped-charge or thermobaric. Small batches of the Gladius 2 are already being produced by WB Group.

The Gladius system has also been integrated with the new four-axle Star 8×8 Hyperion armoured personnel carrier, which was also showcased in Kielce. Among other things, this armoured cargo platform can carry the computer equipment used to operate the AI system controlling the UAVs.

The Hyperion APC was developed by the Polish branch of MAN together with Polish companies WB Group, which is responsible for the bodywork, Szcześniak, which manufactures the armoured cabins, and other companies. Polish-made components are expected to account for 90% of the vehicle, if MAN’s local subsidiary is also counted as Polish production.

The X-LiftAir technology was also showcased at the exhibition. It uses a large multirotor aircraft to lift UAVs to a considerable altitude. This “air lift” allows strike and reconnaissance drones to conserve their own battery power and extend their flight range. The system can be used, among other things, with FlyEye reconnaissance UAVs.

WB Group also presented the Flymate UAV, which combines the capabilities of the FlyEye reconnaissance drone and the Warmate loitering munition. The exhibition also featured the new Warmate 8X, with an X-shaped tail assembly and the ability to carry interchangeable warheads weighing up to 8kg.

Polish company WB Group is one of Europe’s largest UAV manufacturers.

The San anti-aircraft system was also demonstrated at MSPO 2026. Designed to counter UAVs, the system has already been ordered by the Polish Army.

The promised new Piorun-2 man-portable air-defence system was also unveiled at the exhibition. This “Lightning” system will be equipped with a three-channel multispectral seeker resistant to electronic countermeasures and capable of detecting low-signature targets, a new fragmentation warhead, three variants of which are currently undergoing trials with tungsten balls, specialised rollers and rods, a proportional guidance unit, and a new proximity fuze.

Poland plans to produce 1,500 new MANPADS in 2026 and launch serial production of the Piorun-2 in 2030.

Kielce also provided a glimpse of a new explosive said to be 30% more powerful than TNT. Known as UNIPeX, it is a Polish universal plastic explosive. Production is expected to be launched at the Nitro-Chem plant in Bydgoszcz.

War and money

In addition to Polish manufacturers, the exhibition in Kielce featured 180 companies from Canada, 90 from Germany, 50 from the United States and 50 from Australia. The British brought the Herne unmanned underwater vehicles and the Azalea multisensor satellite system, which operates in low Earth orbit. The French-headquartered multinational company MBDA presented its latest long-range missile systems – surface-to-surface and air-to-surface missiles, as well as DragonFire anti-aircraft lasers.

Several new contracts and agreements, including international ones, were signed at MSPO 2026.

Unfortunately, all these enormous resources, efforts and achievements of human ingenuity are being spent not on constructive purposes, but on producing the means of destruction and warfare. Today, however, the defence industry is one of the drivers of the Western economy and generates multibillion-dollar profits. Poland’s defence industry is also making substantial gains, particularly as the production of weapons and military equipment is financed primarily through the European SAFE defence programme.

This has proved so attractive to its beneficiaries that a conference held as part of MSPO 2026 discussed Polish companies’ claims to a share of SAFE funds that some countries have been unable to use and are required to return to the common European fund. Warsaw is also looking hopefully towards Brussels adopting the EU’s new SAFE 2.0 programme.