WZM - Military Mechanical Works

Military Mechanical Works in Siemianowice Slaskie (WZM) were established in 1952 and have a long-term tradition in repairing, upgrading and producing the special goods for the Army. The Works began its activity with repairing the cars and T-34 tanks. In the 60s, the first T-55 and T-55A tanks came to the Works. These were repaired and upgraded into the T-55AM version. In 1982 - 1989, Military Mechanical Works were participated in a contract building a Repair Base of T-55 Tanks in India. Next stage connected with the repairing of tanks for the Polish Army was to repair T-72 tank. At the same time, the following technical security vehicles were being repaired: WZT-1 and WZT-2 and the BLG bridges on the basis of the tanks chassis. Apart from the tank and vehicle repairs together with their upgrading, Military Mechanical Works have been specialized in the main repairs of the internal combustion engines with the power output between 100 and 1000 HP with the following engines types: WOLA, HENSCHEL.

In the early 90s, due to the forced limitations of production, WZM undertook structural and organizational changes within its structures. Therefore, our attention has been focused on elaborating our constructions, such as:
· field stand for the testing of the T-72 tank sets (SKZ- T-72);
· field stand for the testing of the power transmission sets of the 765 article (SKZ-BWP);
· field stand for the testing of the tracked vehicles engines (SKS-G);
· devices for the preservation and lubrication;
· compressor units and power generating sets.

In 1996, upgrading works of the BRDM-2 armored reconnaissance car began. As a result of this work, the whole family of upgraded armored reconnaissance vehicles was generated: from the BRDM-2M96 model through the BRDM-2M96i BRBM-2B, BRDM-2BF, BRDM-2A , and BRDM-2M96iK. In total, more than two hundred vehicles were produced, which have been successfully exploited in the Polish Army, especially during peace missions. Now, the persisting construction works tend to follow the upgrading process of these vehicles, which characterize with great reliability and combat features, which allow these vehicles to adapt to the requirements of a modern battlefield.

In the year 2001, Ministry of National Defense invited Military Mechanical Works, among other companies, to participate in a tender for the delivery of Wheeled Armored Transporters (KTO) for the Polish Land Forces in the years 2004-2013. In this tender, WZM finally proposed a fourth generation armored modular vehicle AMV 8x8, 6x6 of Finnish factory production PATRIA VEHICLES OY from Hämeenlinna that was armed with Italian manufacturer OTO Melara's HIFTIST 30 Turret System in its combat version. Firing ground trials and institutional tests showed enormous potential and the best performance together with reliability of the AMV vehicle and its HITFIST Turret System. Proposed configuration came out as the best from all, and on December 20, 2002, Military Mechanical Works' offer has been selected as the most advantageous from the all presented. The culminating point of entire tender was to sign an agreement for the delivery of 690 armored wheeled transporters between WZM and Procurement Department of Armed Forces of Ministry of National Defense on April 15, 2003.

ACHIEVEMENTS
· wining a tender for the delivery of Armored Wheeled Transporter for the Polish Land
   Forces in the year 2002
· "DEFENDER" prizes awarded during MSPO exhibition in Kielce for the recognition of the
  technical solutions for the defense and security of a nation:
· for the modernization of truck-terrain chassis of STAR 660 M3 in the year 2000
· for the armored reconnaissance vehicle BRDM-2M96i in the year 1999i
· for the armored reconnaissance vehicle Model' 97 (Żbik-B) and model' 98 (Żbik-A) )

During MSPO 2004 exhibition WZM were honored with the Special Award of Minister of  Foreign Matters for international co-operation.