Our soldiers begin their day-to-day service at police stations from swearing in. From that minute on, everything they do is simply a combat mission. This is simply a large challenge – says Colonel Marek Brzezicha, commander of the 3rd Wrocław Radiotechnic Brigade. The unit is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
The 3rd Radiotechnic Brigade you're in charge of is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the uprising. This is more than half of the past of our army's radio-technical troops.
Colonel Marek Brzezicha: The past of Polish radiolocation began on 22 March 1934. The National Telecommunications Institute (PIT) was then established in Warsaw. Its task was to carry out investigation in the field of telecommunications: both military and civil. After planet War II, in 1948, a radar company was formed in the composition of the Air Force in Modlin-New Mazowieckie Court. It was the first radio method unit in the Polish Army. Even 10,000 soldiers served in our kind. For a long time, radio technicians worked at radiolocation stations of the native production of Nysa A and Nysa B.
In the 1970s the Polish sky was protected by 3 brigades – 1 Radiotechnical Brigade in Warsaw, 2 Radiotechnical Brigade in Bydgoszcz and 3 Radiotechnical Brigade in Wrocław. After many changes, restructuring and expansions, now as the only task is our 3rd Wrocław Radiotech Brigade, which reached its full capacity to execute tasks on 31 May 1974.
You're the only tactical union that has sub-units stationed all over the country.
Yes, that's due to the fact that we are the only tactical union capable of radiolocational designation of airspace over all of Poland. However, I must admit that this is simply a very large challenge in terms of organisational, logistical, staff movement or combat activities. Our radio units as 1 of the fewer in the army each day execute combat tasks in peacetime. In fact, small is different from what we would have done in war.
Your wards and posts are frequently located in very tiny towns that do not seem attractive to people who want to make a career in the military.
That's the specifics of our service. We're deployed to the right places to do good radiolocation. Of course, specified locations have a certain effect on the recruitment of staff. Like many brigades we have vacancyes and in different ways we effort to recruit fresh soldiers. Our main concern is electronics, electronics, computer scientists, mechatronics specialists. We besides have places for soldiers of another specialities, in communication or logistics sub-units.
But the efficiency of your service depends not only on the people, but possibly even more on the equipment you use.
The main equipment we usage are the NUR-type radiolocation stations, or ground-based Radiolocation Devices, from older generation NUR-31 or 41, to fresh generation NUR-12ME and NUR-15M stations. To this should be added 3 long-range radars of Italian production.
Is this equipment adequate in a time of war beyond the east border?
Our units have been gradually supplying modern equipment for years. The radars we have are classical informing radars adapted to detect objects with circumstantial parameters. The geopolitical situation and the threat of fresh air raid measures force them to be utilized to detect another threats as well as to accelerate modernisation.
In 1 of our stations, tests of the fresh kind of Polish Warta-type long-range maneuvering radar entered the final phase. It was built in a different technology than what we're presently using. In the long term, it is planned to equip our troops with PET/PCL passive radiolocation stations.
But these aren't all acquisition plans?
The war in Ukraine has shown that 1 of the biggest challenges is to make an effective anti-aircraft defence and a reliable airspace surveillance system. Even the state-of-the-art radio-location stations have restrictions on the terrain. Advanced enemy missiles usage this to avoid detection. Therefore, it is best if the radar is placed advanced above the ground.
And that's why Poland signed an agreement with the United States to buy 4 aerostats For our brigade. We're talking about large unmanned trappers equipped with radar. Information from specified high-arranged wired radar will flow to the operator on the ground. specified trap balloons will be moored on ropes in the east part of the country. Their introduction to the service will dramatically increase the fighting capabilities of our brigade. According to plans, the first specified radar would emergence above the ground in 2026. Now we're choosing soldiers who are about to start training on fresh equipment. method modernization will besides affect changes in the brigade structure – a fresh battalion is expected to be formed in the long word and existing divisions will be strengthened by a fresh group of specialists in uniform.
Are you able detect ballistic missiles The sparker that's been so loud or invisible lately?
I can't talk about it. From a radio location point of view, there's no specified thing as an invisible plane. There are only aircraft harder to detect than others. If this kind of plane had appeared in our airspace, it would have been noticed. Same with ballistic missiles. Polish military has equipment to detect and destruct specified objects.
The war in Ukraine has shown how much the function of various unmanned types plays in aerial activities. Are you ready to detect drones yet?
There are different types of unmanned aircraft. The larger ones are easy detected. Very small, flying very low above the ground, we may indeed overlook. Unmanned people have entered widespread use, so we request to get even better equipment to effectively detect drones even with tiny dimensions. However, remember that radars are not only equipped in the field of combat with radiotechnic troops.
Despite your large possibilities, it was loud about a rocket that fell in the vicinity of Bydgoszcz, alien helicopters flying in our airspace or The rocket that flew into our area And she got fired. How do you comment?
These air targets were detected by brigade stations in accordance with their capabilities. There has been quite a few speculation in the media that I do not want to comment on.
It is true, however, that troops from across the east border have long pursued various provocations against you. Sometimes the Belarusian fighter jets go “on full gas” towards our border, as if they want to cross it and at the last minute change direction.
Testing our readiness and capabilities has been going on decently forever. but in fresh times, specified actions have become more spectacular. That is why our soldiers and another defenders of the Polish sky are required, in addition to their expertise, to have a strong intellectual resilience and large control. The radar operator, observing a rocket flying right off our border, may have the impression that in a fewer seconds it will fall into the combat station where he works. Emotions during specified service can be very intense.
Did the war in Ukraine change anything in the actions of the brigade?
Our actions have changed dramatically since the start of the war beyond the east border. Many of our subdivisions have emerged from permanent locations of dislocation and are inactive working in the area at high-level radio-location stations, as in war conditions. This is simply a dense burden for our soldiers. Soldiers patrolling the border barrier are most frequently shown. And yet we are besides guardians of the border of the country, only in airspace. We're in combat work 24/7 all day of the year.
Our soldiers begin their day-to-day service at police stations from swearing in. From now on, everything they do is simply a combat mission. This is simply a large challenge, as evidenced by the fact that 530 of our soldiers have already received a peculiar sign “For the Protection of the Borders of the Republic of Poland”, which is awarded to soldiers protecting the border for a minimum of 60 days.
What can you and the brigade want for the next years of service?
Perhaps that more people would be willing to join us. We are a brigade where there is no monotony. We have a lot going on, and soldiers who service us all day can do something useful for the country and themselves. Our service is interesting and gives large satisfaction. For individual who wants to make a career in the military, we have many proposals.
Colonel Marek Brzezicha In 1996, he graduated from the Higher Officer Radiotechnical School in Jelenia Góra. In the radio-technical troops, he was a radio-location station commander and section chief at the 31st Radio-technical Battalion, and since 2004 a commander of that battalion. From 2018 he served as Deputy Commander of the 3rd Radiotechnic Brigade and then Head of Training Branch at the General Command of the RSZ. In 2004, he graduated from the Academy of National Defence in the Department of Aviation and Air Defence. In 2020 he graduated from the Postgraduate Defence Policy Studies at the Academy of War Art.
Colonel Brzezicha is curious in past and aviation. His hobby is culinary. He's married, has 2 sons.
