President of the Łukasiewicz Network: we want to fill the niche that we see in unmanned land systems

The President of the Łukasiewicz Research Network, Dr. Huber Cichocki, told PAP that the Network sees a business opportunity and a niche in unmanned land systems that it would like to fill. He informed that the Łukasiewicz Research Network is currently working on systems that have the potential to replace humans on the battlefield.

"In the area of ​​autonomous systems, we are currently focusing on the development of heavy unmanned systems, in particular the so-called Hunter project," said Dr. Cichocki, president of the Łukasiewicz Network.

The Hunter project is an initiative aimed at further development and commercialization of a highly mobile, unmanned hybrid platform for rapid response tasks, such as protecting state borders, patrolling military and urban areas or logistics tasks. The president of the organization called the project "an attempt to engage the organization's resources more in the area of ​​heavy unmanned systems that have the potential to replace humans on the battlefield." "This is a product with both defensive and offensive capabilities, which we want to develop very intensively in the near future, in the coming quarters," he added.

The President of the Łukasiewicz Research Network said that the Network is currently focusing on trying to introduce new effectors to unmanned platforms. Asked whether this concerns military applications or various types of support, he replied that he meant both of these areas: support and armament.

SBŁ – as Cichocki said – is currently focused primarily on the land domain, mainly due to the saturation of the flying drone market. He admitted that – although the Network's institutes are also working on technological solutions in the field of aircraft – he sees a "niche" and business opportunity in land systems.

The latest achievement of the Network – as Cichocki recalled – is the contract signed in March with the Armament Agency for the delivery of approximately 100 Tarantula unmanned reconnaissance vehicles to the Land Forces – small machines that can be carried in special backpacks, are to be used by soldiers to conduct reconnaissance on the front line and in places inaccessible to humans. Tarantulas are the flagship product of one of the institutes belonging to the Łukasiewicz Network – the Industrial Institute of Automation and Measurements (PIAP).

"This agreement is the result of years of commitment and work of our engineers. PIAP, which belongs to the Network, has several dozen years of experience in generating intellectual property in the field of automation and robotics. We deliver these systems, as the Łukasiewicz Network, to 28 countries," said Cichocki. However, as he added, the challenge facing the Network in this area is "real scaling of production and achieving economic effects thanks to this, also in the area of ​​cost structure."

Cichocki pointed out that the arms industry should not be associated exclusively with heavy equipment, such as tanks. "We must remember that a number of traditional solutions not associated with armaments can be used for the needs of the defense industry," he noted. According to the president, a good example of this are solutions in the field of battlefield infrastructure, e.g. in the area of ​​containers, where the Network's institutes cooperate with the private Polish arms industry, which supplies containers for the army. Above all, however, Cichocki emphasized the essence of unmanned drones, to which the Network attaches special importance.

Cichocki also drew attention to the need to strengthen the research and development component in the Polish arms industry. If, he said, Poland managed to start investing in research and development, e.g. 5% of the amounts allocated for defense, within a decade the expenditure in this area would amount to approximately PLN 80 billion. Moreover, as Cichocki also pointed out, the increase in public expenditure on R&D in the area of ​​defense also translates into an increase in expenditure on research and innovation in the private sector. Currently, Poland allocates approximately 2.5% of its defense budget for research and development.

Łukasiewicz Research Network is an organization consisting of 22 research and implementation institutes. Łukasiewicz Institutes and their branches employ about 7 thousand employees in 30 locations throughout the country. Łukasiewicz's potential and competences focus on four key research directions, which are: national defense and security, chemistry for industry, energy transformation and circular economy. Many of the institutes belonging to SBŁ specialize in solutions in the field of unmanned land systems. (PAP)

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