Between 15th and 19th May Poland has been hosting one of the four weeks of the 29th Edition of the SERA – Session européenne des responsables d’armement (European Session for Armament Officials) course. The course involved representatives of the higher levels of government administration and managerial staff of the defence sector companies. The goal of the training was to enhance and reinforce the defence collaboration in Europe, as the initiative also was to cover the analysis of armament, defence hardware and security issues.
This year’s 29th edition of the SERA course, taking place in Poland, has been organized as a result of collaboration established by and between the Polish Armaments Group and the Polish MoD. Besides presentation of the National Defence Policy assumptions, and the current assumptions of the Polish Armed Forces Technical Modernization Plan, by the representatives of the Polish Ministry of Defence, the course also included study visits at the PIT-RADWAR S.A and Rosomak S.A. companies, followed by demonstration of equipment manufactured by the HSW S.A., DEZAMET S.A. and ZM Tarnów S.A. which took place at the Nowa Dęba range.
The visit at the PIT-RADWAR S.A company took place on 17th May 2017. The session participants attended a presentation of strategic products prepared by the aforesaid entity. Then, the guests were invited to visit the Ready Products Hall, where they stood a chance of getting thoroughly acquainted with the hardware manufactured at the PIT-RADWAR S.A facility.
The visits have formed an opportunity to present the equipment and the offer of the PGZ Group companies to the European audience consisting of armament and defence professionals. During the direct meeting of the representatives of the companies with the participants responsible for establishment of defence collaboration in Europe, options of establishing or continuing industrial and research collaboration were discussed, along with the issues related to acquisition of new markets where the products could be sold, beyond the European soil.
During the sessions organized this year, the participants were involved in national and European presentations, by, inter alia: European Commission, EDA, ESA, National Armament Directors. Moreover, they attended study visits at the selected defence sector companies in France, the UK and in Poland. One of the relevant elements of the course was to prepare recommendations, concerning a myriad of cooperation-related issues, at the European level.
The training is organized annually by the French IHEDN centre. In the current, 4-weeks long training cycle, the sessions were taking place in France, the UK and finally, in Poland.