Reconnaissance robots, Piorun-armed drones and a radar satellite. Łukasiewicz brings finished products to MSPO 2026

Almost 70 per cent of the projects selected for public funding in 2026 by Poland's Łukasiewicz Research Network concern defence, security or dual-use technology, up from just over 10 per cent two years ago. At the MSPO defence exhibition in Kielce the network is showing what that shift has produced: Tarantula reconnaissance robots due for delivery to the Armament Agency this autumn, the heavy HUNTeR unmanned ground vehicle configured to lay anti-tank mines remotely, the Piorun man-portable air defence system mounted on an unmanned platform, and an explosive based entirely on Polish technology. For the domestic defence industry it signals that the country's largest network of research institutes intends to be a supplier of finished products rather than a scientific partner only.

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08 september 2026   |   13:46   |   Source: Gazeta Morska   |   Prepared by: Kamil Kusier   |   Print

fot. Sieć Badawcza Łukasiewicz

From partnerships to purchase orders

Łukasiewicz presents this as a move from the strategic partnerships signed with leading defence companies over the past two years to agreements on specific products, special-purpose companies and deliveries to the Polish Armed Forces. Public money is to go where there is a defined customer, a route to production and a prospect of sales at home or abroad.

- We are moving from declarations to implementation. The partnerships built over the past two years have resulted in agreements on specific products and technologies, said Hubert Cichocki, president of the Łukasiewicz Centre.

Hubert Cichocki argues that working with business from the early research stage shortens design time and reduces investment risk, which for industry translates into savings and higher margins. The same model is meant to give Polish companies access to new markets and raise the domestic share of supply chains.

Tarantula this autumn, HUNTeR with Belma mines

The most concrete items are unmanned ground vehicles. The first PIAP Tarantula reconnaissance robots go to the Armament Agency this autumn and are on public display in Kielce for the first time. The heavy HUNTeR platform has been integrated with products from the Bydgoszcz mine manufacturer Belma and can lay anti-tank mines remotely. The mobile ASBOP-Perkun system pairs the Piorun shoulder-launched air defence missile with the IBIS unmanned platform; Łukasiewicz and CRW Telesystem-Mesko are to set up a joint company to develop the system, which has been integrated with unmanned platforms for critical infrastructure protection. According to the network, none of these products has been shown publicly before, though the platforms have already been used in exercises with European allies.

General Mieczysław Cieniuch, a former chief of the Polish General Staff who now writes defence assessments for Łukasiewicz, told Gazeta Wyborcza before the show that drone development would accelerate and that unmanned ground vehicles mattered most because they directly protect soldiers' lives and take on the most dangerous, arduous or highly skilled tasks.

An explosive Polish industry has never made at scale

The second pillar is chemistry and power. Stand 4-A12 will display a sample of an explosive based entirely on Polish technology; the network says domestic industry has never produced such material on a commercial scale and presents it as an answer to shortages of ammunition and rocket propellants. The Air-Power system, developed with the Military Central Design and Technology Bureau (WCBKT), is intended to keep essential equipment running at airfields and field bases after an attack on the power grid or a grid failure. Alongside it are lightweight, high power density electric motors capable of driving hybrid aircraft of up to 750 kg.

A satellite that sees through cloud

At MSPO Łukasiewicz will sign a strategic partnership with Eycore, one of the few European companies operating its own radar satellite in orbit. The agreement covers synthetic aperture radar technology that allows Earth observation at night, through cloud and in fog, conditions that prevail over the Baltic for most of the year. The partnership is to develop the network's Space Research Programme, launched this year, and the SPARK nanosatellite is being shown to a wider audience for the first time on the stand.

- We also treat space as part of the future battlefield, Hubert Cichocki said.

He sums up the network's defence offer in four areas: space, robotics, artificial intelligence and advanced chemistry. From a maritime perspective two of them stand out. Piorun on an unmanned platform is a critical infrastructure protection tool, and ports and terminals are critical infrastructure. Radar satellite observation, meanwhile, is the only way to keep continuous track of vessels not transmitting AIS over a Baltic that spends most of the year under cloud.

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Sieć Badawcza Łukasiewicz MSPO 2026 robot Tarantula PIAP Piorun platforma bezzałogowa polski materiał wybuchowy satelita radarowy Eycore

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