A Gladius you can build at home. WB Group and Cobi show how Polish defence brands are being built

A construction brick model of three unmanned systems belonging to Poland's largest privately owned defence company has been produced to WB Group's order as the Cobi-1459 Unmanned Systems set. This is an exclusive edition: the set was manufactured solely for WB Group and will be used exclusively for the company's marketing purposes, meaning it will not enter regular retail. A seemingly minor item from the border between the toy trade and the defence industry says a good deal about how Polish defence companies are now building recognition.

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27 august 2026   |   17:24   |   Source: Gazeta Morska   |   Prepared by: Kamil Kusier   |   Print

fot. COBI / graf. Gazeta Morska

Three systems in one box

The set contains the launcher of the Gladius loitering strike and reconnaissance system with a twin-engine FT-5 unmanned aircraft in its ISR variant mounted on it, the FlyEye reconnaissance unmanned system, and the Warmate 3 loitering munition system. Figures of Polish soldiers are included. The model comprises 475 elements and, in line with the manufacturer's standard, carries high-quality printing rather than stickers.

WB Group, as the manufacturer notes, sought a domestic producer as a Polish entity itself. Cobi bricks are made entirely in Poland, at the company's plant in Mielec. WB Group, headquartered in Ożarów Mazowiecki, marked the launch in its own idiom, pointing out that this is the only civilian version of the Gladius system available anywhere in the world, complete with the FlyEye and Warmate 3 systems, and that it requires no operator qualifications.

Behind the joke lies a deliberate communications decision. Systems that in recent months became the subject of the largest unmanned equipment orders in Polish history are entering circulation in a form accessible to anyone. Not at trade fairs, not in a product catalogue, but on the desks and shelves of audiences the company wants to reach beyond its usual circle.

Building a brand ahead of a listing

The timing is not accidental. In May, WB Group signed contracts with the Armament Agency for deliveries of the Gladius, FlyEye and Warmate systems, the largest orders for equipment of this type in the history of the Polish armed forces. In parallel, the company is delivering fire control system components for the ZSSW turret to Huta Stalowa Wola under a contract worth roughly PLN 1.2 billion gross, expanding international cooperation including with Romania's Romaero on loitering munition production, and preparing for a possible stock market debut in which the Polish Development Fund could divest part of its holding.

A company weighing an initial public offering ceases to communicate solely with the military and government ministries. It begins building recognition among investors, media and the wider public. A brick model of its own systems is, in that logic, a cheap, durable and effective instrument. It will not date like a trade fair brochure, nor disappear like a social media campaign, and for years it will sit on a shelf as a physical carrier of the brand. The fact that the set will not be sold only strengthens its value as a gift: it becomes an object that cannot be bought, only received.

For the maritime and defence sectors there is a further observation here. Unmanned systems, discussed in Poland barely a decade ago almost exclusively among specialists, are now entering popular culture by the same route previously taken by tanks, warships and fighter aircraft. That is a change in the status of an entire product category.

A Polish touch at the F-35 plant

That construction bricks can serve a function considerably more serious than play was demonstrated by an earlier scene at Lockheed Martin's facilities in the United States. During a visit to the plant where F-35A aircraft destined for the Polish Air Force are built, President Karol Nawrocki presented the American corporation's chief executive with a Cobi set depicting the F-35A "Husarz", the same fighter in Polish markings and under its Polish name. The model refers to the name given to the aircraft formally accepted into service on 12 June 2026 at the 32nd Tactical Air Base in Łask.

The gesture is worth noting. In a conversation with the leadership of one of the world's largest defence corporations, the Polish side reached for a product of a Polish company that spoke about an American aircraft in the language of Polish industry and Polish symbolism. It would be hard to find a clearer illustration of what economic diplomacy sometimes amounts to in practice.

The Polish manufacturer deserves recognition

In both of these stories, the one from Ożarów Mazowiecki and the one from Fort Worth, the common denominator is a manufacturer from Mielec. Cobi has been built from scratch over more than three decades and is today the largest producer of construction bricks in Central and Eastern Europe, with sales offices in the Czech Republic, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States and a distribution network covering close to 50 countries. The overwhelming majority of output from Mielec goes to export markets.

This is a case of a Polish brand that won a competitive contest in a market dominated by a global giant, and did so not through imitation but through consistent specialisation: historical and contemporary military models, fidelity of detail, printing instead of stickers, material quality. The result is that when a Polish defence company looks for a manufacturer to model its systems, and when a Polish president looks for a gift for the chief executive of Lockheed Martin, the answer in both cases is the same and comes from the Subcarpathian region.

That is worth recognising, because a country's economic strength rests not only on major defence and shipbuilding contracts but also on the ability to build consumer brands capable of telling the story of those contracts. The Polish defence industry is entering a phase in which technology alone is no longer sufficient and the ability to communicate it begins to matter. The Cobi-1459 Unmanned Systems set is a small but telling piece of evidence that part of the sector already understands this.

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Grupa WB Cobi zestaw Cobi-1459 Unmanned Systems Gladius FlyEye Warmate klocki F-35A Husarz Cobi polski przemysł obronny marketing

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