Water firing took place on Lake Ostrowiec. Brigade: – After loading ammunition into their Infantry Fighting Vehicles, the soldiers positioned themselves on the start line, located where the land met the water. After hearing the signal, they set off to reach the red buoys, which marked the point from which they could open fire.
The Dragons conducted fire along two parallel routes toward targets located 700 meters away. Unit:
The first targets to appear depicted combat figure No. 50—a personnel carrier. They fired at them with a 73 mm gun, using an anti-tank grenade. The next target was an infantry group, which was fired upon with a 7.62 mm machine gun. After firing was completed, the BWP-1 vehicles turned around at the green buoys, which marked the ceasefire line, and returned to land.
Although the Dragons do not often have the opportunity to conduct this type of firing, the professionally trained crews of the combat vehicles handled it very well. The ability of heavy equipment to swim is one of the priorities of the Polish Armed Forces due to Poland’s terrain, including its numerous rivers and lakes, wetlands and similar areas. The BWP-1 combat vehicles meet this requirement, so during the allied Defender exercise, one of the many elements tested was conducting combat firing while swimming—an exercise that demonstrated the high level of professionalism of the Dragons from Świętoszów.
They have one final week of international cooperation ahead of them at the Drawsko training area as part of the Defender exercise, so they will face various and complex tasks more than once as they continue to improve cooperation within the allied framework.