Defense Express reported on November 5, 2026 that Poland is preparing to manufacture Ukraine’s Bohdana 155 mm wheeled self-propelled howitzer, citing a deal reached on the sidelines of the MSPO 2026 exhibition in Kielce in September between SZCZĘŚNIAK Pojazdy Specjalne, a Polish maker of wheeled chassis, and PK MIL, a Polish-Ukrainian joint venture. The article attributes the deal only to “information available in the media” and gives no quantities, launch date, production site or costs.

The Bohdana venture

  • Defense Express gives PK MIL’s ownership, without a source, as 51% PONAR Wadowice, a Polish hydraulic systems maker, and 49% Kramatorsk Heavy Machine Tool Plant, part of NAUDI.
  • Militarnyi reported on March 6, 2026, relaying sources cited by Business Insider Polska, that PK MIL is a joint venture of Ponar Wadowice, which holds 51%, and the Kramatorsk Heavy Machine Building Plant; that it “was founded in October 2025”; and that it was “currently completing the formal procedures to start weapons production in Poland.” It said more than 600 Bohdana systems had been built in total and that Ponar already makes hydraulic systems for the Krab howitzer and the Borsuk infantry fighting vehicle.
  • Militarnyi said production in Poland “opens up wide opportunities for exporting Bohdana to other countries” and noted that Ukrainian-made weapons cannot be exported in the same way.

The Kryl program

Defense Express says Poland spent “more than 10 years” developing a 155 mm wheeled self-propelled howitzer, Kryl, and “never managed to bring the project to completion.” It describes the design as a wheeled version of the Krab sized to fit a C-130 Hercules cargo hold, with a weight limit of 21 tonnes, significantly reduced crew protection and 18 rounds of ammunition. The article says the design “no longer met the requirements of the Polish military” after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and that the program “was quietly canceled in 2023”; it names no source for the cancellation. It adds that in November 2024 hints that the project “could be revived” were reported, without details.

What the article infers

Defense Express writes that the arrangement suggests Poland would localize the chassis and hydraulic components while the artillery and fire control stay Ukrainian, and that it is “quite possible” Poland may treat Bohdana production as a way to resume the work begun under Kryl. Both are the author’s inferences; the article does not cite Polish officials, Defence24 or company statements.

Where the accounts differ

The reports Lens read describe different stages. Militarnyi’s March 6 report described a joint venture founded in October 2025 and completing formal procedures, while Defense Express describes a September 2026 deal between the chassis maker and the venture. Another report, seen only as a search-result summary, gave March 2026 as the venture’s founding date. Lens found no report that production has started and no quantities or orders.

Sources and notes

Sources: Defense Express, Ivan Kyrychevskiy, November 5, 2026; Militarnyi, Taras Safronov, March 6, 2026. Notes: Defense Express identifies its author as a serviceman in the 413th Raid Regiment of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces and a weapons expert at Defense Express. The September deal, the ownership split and the 2023 cancellation are stated without a named source. Militarnyi’s report relays unnamed sources and is not an official announcement, and its page does not mention SZCZĘŚNIAK or a memorandum. Thumbnail photo: “Bohdana self-propelled howitzer” by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons, taken August 10, 2018 during parade training at Ozerne airfield in the Zhytomyr region; cropped. It shows Ukrainian-built vehicles on a truck chassis, not Polish production.

Image: Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (CC BY-SA 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons.