Poland upgrades military electronics plant near Wrocław

Polish state-owned radar maker PIT-RADWAR has signed a contract to start rebuilding its plant in Czernica, near Wrocław, the first step in a nearly 90 million zloty (about $23 million) investment that the company links to Poland’s new counter-drone program.

The first stage is worth nearly 21 million zlotys (about $5.5 million) before tax, and covers construction and modernization work in most of the plant’s production buildings, Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa, the state defense group that owns PIT-RADWAR, said on Oct. 2. The contractor is Polish construction firm Grupa KDM. PIT-RADWAR will also buy about 4.5 million zlotys’ worth of new workshop equipment with its own money, the Polish defense outlet MILMAG reported.

PGZ said the new buildings and machinery will expand PIT-RADWAR’s production, research, assembly and quality control work at the site. The group did not give a completion date for the first stage or say when the remaining stages will be contracted.

The Czernica plant used to be a separate company, Military Communications Works No. 2, which builds military communications and command systems. It was merged into PIT-RADWAR, with the deal finalized early this year, and the modernization is one of the commitments PGZ made during that merger, Portal Obronny reported. The plant integrates communications systems, builds equipment containers and is a key Polish partner of U.S. firm L3Harris, whose military radios the Polish Armed Forces use.

Equipment made in Czernica goes to both Polish and allied forces, PIT-RADWAR chief executive Arkadiusz Miszuk told the Polish Press Agency. He said employment at the plant will grow by about half. The site currently employs about 170 people, and the company expects that to reach about 270 once all the investment is finished, according to Defence24. PIT-RADWAR is hiring mainly engineers, electronics specialists, welders and fitters.

PIT-RADWAR has tied the Czernica plant to San, Poland’s largest counter-drone program. In January, Poland’s Armament Agency signed a deal worth about 15 billion zlotys (about $3.9 billion) with a consortium led by PGZ and Norway’s Kongsberg for 18 batteries of the San system, with private Polish firm Advanced Protection Systems as a key subcontractor. The system is meant to detect, identify and destroy hostile drones and covers more than 700 vehicles. Deliveries are due to finish within two years.

The program followed the September 2025 incursion of Russian drones into Polish airspace.

The Czernica investment is PIT-RADWAR’s second major factory project, after it expanded production at its plant in Kobyłka near Warsaw. That site builds radars and parts for the Patriot air defense system, including identification friend-or-foe antennas for the new LTAMDS radar under an offset deal with RTX’s Raytheon.

PIT-RADWAR is also the technical lead on two of Poland’s biggest radar programs: 24 P-18PL long-range early warning radars ordered in 2023 and a 2025 contract worth up to 5.8 billion zlotys for up to 46 passive location radars for the Narew short-range air defense system.