IN Brief:
- ASELSAN will supply 24 additional ARSUS reconnaissance and surveillance systems for Poland.
- Deliveries are scheduled for 2028 and 2029 under the company’s continuing cooperation with vehicle manufacturer AMZ Kutno.
- ARSUS combines radar, electro-optics, navigation, target location, and communications on a vehicle-mounted elevating mast.
ASELSAN has secured a follow-on order to supply 24 ARSUS reconnaissance and surveillance systems for the Polish Armed Forces, extending its work with vehicle manufacturer AMZ Kutno and adding deliveries scheduled for 2028 and 2029.
The contract was signed at MSPO 2026 in Kielce and builds on a framework agreement established between the Turkish electronics group and AMZ Kutno in 2024. The additional systems will supplement deliveries already planned under the wider programme, giving the latest announcement a defined production quantity and timetable rather than the looser industrial intent often attached to exhibition agreements.
ARSUS 100 is a mast-mounted reconnaissance suite that integrates radar, electro-optical sensors and an inertial navigation system on a common architecture. The system can be fitted to vehicles or stationary platforms and is intended to detect targets at distance before using optical and thermal sensors for recognition, identification and precise location.
The radar is a Ku-band pulse-Doppler design with track-while-scan, multi-target tracking and automatic target tracking. It can scan continuously through 360 degrees or operate within selected sectors, giving a reconnaissance vehicle a wider surveillance picture than could be achieved with electro-optics alone.
That radar picture is paired with cooled thermal imaging and high-definition day cameras for closer identification. ARSUS also includes a laser rangefinder and laser designator, allowing target coordinates to be generated for fire-support tasks rather than limiting the vehicle to observation and reporting.
The elevating mast is important to the operating concept. Raising the sensor package allows crews to observe over terrain or from behind cover while keeping more of the vehicle below the skyline. Sensor levelling and stabilised tracking are intended to preserve targeting accuracy when the host platform is operating on uneven ground.
Target information, images and video can be passed to command systems over radio links. ASELSAN describes the system as compatible with C4I networks and an open, modular architecture, allowing different sensor or communications equipment to be incorporated without redesigning the complete reconnaissance package.
For Poland, ARSUS is associated with AMZ Kutno’s LOTR Kleszcz reconnaissance vehicle programme. The underlying Bóbr-3-derived 4×4 platform provides mobility and protection, while the mast and electronic payload turn it into a distributed surveillance node able to detect, identify and pass targets into a wider command or fire-support network.
The Polish integration is already beyond prototype status. ASELSAN recorded the first delivery of ARSUS 100 to a European customer during 2025, following integration of the system on AMZ Kutno vehicles for Polish end use. The new 24-system order therefore expands a configuration that has already passed through initial delivery rather than funding another demonstrator.
That changes the industrial challenge. Once a sensor suite has been integrated and accepted, follow-on production depends on repeatable manufacture of radar electronics, optical assemblies, mast mechanisms, navigation equipment and computing hardware, followed by vehicle integration, configuration control and customer acceptance.
Deliveries in 2028 and 2029 provide a defined production horizon for that work. The timetable also gives the companies time to coordinate ARSUS output with vehicle availability, because producing sensors faster than host platforms can be completed would simply move the programme bottleneck from electronics to final integration.
The order broadens a defence relationship that already extends beyond reconnaissance. ASELSAN signed a $410 million electronic-warfare export agreement with Poland in December 2025 and has developed a network of more than 20 Polish suppliers. The company has also indicated that training, maintenance and centres of excellence could become areas for further cooperation.
Local industrial participation matters because surveillance systems are not sustained simply by replacing complete units when they fail. Electro-optical equipment needs calibration and maintenance, radar assemblies require specialist test capability, software and communications configurations have to remain controlled, and the elevating mast introduces its own mechanical support requirements.
A domestic support structure can therefore be as important as the original vehicle integration if the Polish Armed Forces intend to operate the fleet for decades. It also reduces dependence on returning equipment to the original manufacturer for routine work, provided Polish suppliers receive the tooling, documentation and training required to undertake approved maintenance.
The 24-system quantity gives the latest agreement more substance than the earlier framework alone, although no contract value has been disclosed. It is also not yet clear how the new batch relates numerically to the full Kleszcz fleet or how many additional ARSUS systems could ultimately be ordered under plans extending into the 2030s.
What is defined is the next production step: 24 mast-mounted reconnaissance suites, delivered across 2028 and 2029, for an integration already established on a Polish vehicle. The programme now moves from proving the architecture towards sustaining repeatable sensor manufacture and fleet-level support.
