At the Armor Fair MSPO 2026 in Kielce, Poland, the homegrown Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa (PGZ) showcased last week the heavy infantry fighting vehicle Ratel (Honey Badger). The vehicle is conceived as a complement to the lighter, amphibious Borsuk (simply Badger), which has already been introduced into the Polish armed forces. While the latter is intended to outfit armored brigades with the South Korean main battle tank K2 Black Panther, Poland has also articulated a need for a more heavily protected platform to accompany the American M1 Abrams.
While the Borsuk weighs only 28 tons due to the required amphibious capability and can carry, in addition to its three-man crew, a firing dismount squad of six, the non-amphibious Ratel is planned to weigh about 42 tons — 50 percent more — and also has a higher dismount strength of eight men. Compared with the MTU 8V199 TE20 engine delivering 530 kilowatts and the Allison 3040 MX transmission, this vehicle uses an MTU diesel engine with 800 kilowatts of power. The Ratel should be able to manage a 60-degree slope and a cross slope of 30 percent, and to cross trenches two meters wide as well as bodies of water 1.20 meters deep.
Ratel at MSPO with the same turret as Borsuk
At MSPO it was shown with the same unmanned ZSSW-30 turret as the Borsuk, which houses the remotely operated 30-mm Mk 44S Bushmaster II autocannon with around 200 rounds of ready ammunition, a coaxial 7.62-mm machine gun UKM-2000C with a 400-round belt, and two launchers for anti-tank guided missiles Spike-LR or Javelin. The turret features a gunner’s sight GOC-1 Nike and a panoramic sight GOD-1 Iris for the commander with Hunter-Killer capability to hand over targets to the gunner or to override him. Both include day and night sight channels with a laser rangefinder and an autotracker for targets.
There is also an optical emergency sight not connected to the fire control system. The four laser warning sensors of the Obra-3 system are connected to the turret’s eight 81 mm smoke grenade launchers. Like the Borsuk, the Ratel is also equipped with a 360-degree camera system for the crew. Whether and in what quantity the new infantry fighting vehicle will be procured has not yet been decided. On the European market, it competes with similar platforms such as Rheinmetall’s KF41 Lynx, BAE Systems’ ASCOD, and also the Korean AS21 Redback, which could also meet Poland’s needs.
