Belarusian Polonez Systems Against Poland

Stepping up military preparations in Eastern Europe could provoke further exacerbation of the military and strategic situation in our region.

On April 12, 2016, on Cosmonautics Day, Aliaksandr Lukashenka visited a cosmic complex in Stankava. Addressing its employees, the ruler, in addition to other things, touched upon the issues of the defence capability of the country and development of new military technologies. A special attention had been paid by Lukashenka to development of Belarusian rocket programmes, a military expert Aliaksandr Alesin writes in Belrynak newspaper.

According to him, rockets are the most credible deterrent for a potential aggressor. The fact that Belarus has such weapons which could hit targets at a distance of several hundred kilometres make any aggressor think that if necessary any variant of military attacking of our country would be nipped in the bud.

Meanwhile, some commentators attracted attention to the fact that the Belarusian leader had said this passage not for the first time, and so started to guess which of the neighbouring states could be an addressee of this kind of warning in case of escalation. And though Aliaksandr Lukashenka was unlikely to mean any concrete state, an unbiased analysis of the recent events, according to the people who support this point of view, shows that Poland is most likely to be this country.

Many experts agree that it is impossible to reach all significant destruction objectives at the territory of Poland from Kaliningrad oblast. Moreover, some of them are sure that alongside with Russian Iskander short-range ballistic missile systems, NATO installations in the cross-border region are to be in taken aim by Belarusian Polonez (Polonaise) multiple rocket launcher systems, which are to enter service with the Belarusian army soon.

From this point of view, an article at www.belvpo.com as of June 8, 2015 is interesting. According to the author, for a hypothetical European theater of operation, Belarusian Polonez multiple rocket launcher systems could be equated with Russian tactical ballistic missile systems. Possibilities of the both systems could complement each other when performing complex fire engagement missions, in line with the plan of Belarus’ defence, and also for neutralizing EuroABM facilities.

Notably, in the conditions of the European theater of operation, a salvo fire of Polonez corrected missiles could be much more effective that a possible fire of Iskander-M. It could allow to “wipe off from the face of the earth” an entire military unit of a potential adversary at a distance of 200 km and more.

It is quite possible that in a hypothetical military confrontation of Belarus and Russia with NATO the targets for Polonezes could be Minsk Mazowiecki, Dęblin air bases (Poland), air bases in Zokniai (Lithuania), Lielvārde and Rezekne (Latvia). Characteristics of Belarusian multiple rocket launcher systems make it possible to reach forward command posts of NATO rapid response forces, training areas in Nowa Dęba, Ełk (Poland), Pabradė and Rukla (Lithuania), where deploying of NATO military formations is possible.