The Polish Anders Light Tank & Infantry Fighting Vehicle was developed with the anticipation of not only replacing the Polish Land Forces ageing BMP-1 family, with the addition of heavy fire support variants. The vehicle is also available for the export market.
It is named after Władysław Anders, a general of the Polish Army during World War II and is designed by OBRUM aka Ośrodek Badawczo-Rozwojowy Urządzeń Mechanicznych (Research and Development Centre for Mechanical Appliances) which is part of the Bumar Group.
The first working prototype was unveiled at a 2010 military exhibition. It has since been used to demonstrate various turrets and main guns:
Infantry Fighting Vehicle
It is equipped with a two man turret (gunner & commander). Designed by Italian firm Oto Melara, the Hitfist-30P turret is equipped with a 30mm ATK Mk 44 chain gun and a coaxial 7.62mm Polish UKM-2000 MG. The 30mm main gun is controlled by a modern FCS and thermal sights. This turret is used on the Polish Kołowy Transporter Opancerzony Rosomak aka the Wolverine, which is the licence built 8×8 wheeled Finnish Patria AMV.
Other than the x2 turret crew, the vehicle driver is up front with the powerpack and x8 infantry in the back.
Light Tank / Fire Support (120mm)
The turret is fitted with Swiss firm RUAG Land Systems’ 120mm Compact smoothbore main gun. The gun offers the ability to match the firepower of a Leopard 2 MBT but has almost the same weight and space of the companies 105mm system. The gun is capable of firing all ammunitions used by the Leopard 2, Abrams and Merkava’s L44 120mm smoothbore, such as APFSDS and HE rounds.
Light Tank / Fire Support (105mm)
Belgium manufacturer CMI Defence has developed a two man turret mounting a 105mm rifled main gun capable of firing anti-tank missiles and coupled to an auto-loader called the CT-CV Weapon System. As a modular design, it is capable of being mounted in a number of modern 8×8 IFV’s such as the Pandur II. It was successfully installed on the Anders in 2011 and put on display at the 2012 EUROSATORY defence industry fair held in Paris, France.
Other family variants planned
The manufacturer, Bumar (Poland) stated in 2010 that the vehicle was also available as engineering and chemical reconnaissance vehicles as well as technical facility vehicle.
Mobility
Top Road Speed 70 km/h. May climb a hill with a 60-degree slope and travel down a 40-degree slope, as well as cross a 2.6m wide trench and ford a river up to 5 m deep.
Production
As of mid-2012 the manufacturer has not released a press pack confirming production. However Polish Gen. Waldemar Skrzypczak has confirmed that “Our infantry vehicles (BMP) will soon be 30 years old” and “Their further use may pose a threat to their operators and the operations, in which they are used”. The manufacturer has gone on to say that the Polish MoD are very interested in buying the Anders as its new IFV and fire support vehicle.
Updated 2015: Marketing of the vehicle appears to have ceased and the designers OBRUM have since entered in to a joint project called the PL-01 “Stealth Tank” with BAE Systems.