Polish Armed Forces Day Parade 2026 in Warsaw

Each year on 15 August Poland celebrates Święto Wojska Polskiego, Polish Armed Forces Day, in Warsaw and at locations all around the country, reports Carl Schulze.

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The biggest celebrations by far held in honour of the country’s fighting forces are conducted in the nations Poland’s capital, Warsaw, were a massive military parade is conducted. Joint-Forces mingled with the tens of thousands of visitors at this year’s Polish Armed Forces Day Parade to provide readers with some impressions of this superb event.

As usual this year’s parade was conducted on the Wisłostrada in Warsaw, where the road runs straight along the bank of the historic Vistula river. Many high-ranking Polish politicians attended the parade in order to honour the service of Polish servicemen and servicewomen. Most notable among the dignitaries were the current President of Poland, Karol Tadeusz Nawrocki, and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz.

Flypast and March-past: The parade started at 12:00 noon and included, among other events: speeches from both the President and the Minister of National Defence; the promotion of 21 staff officers to General; and a flypast of dozens of Polish Air Force helicopters and aircraft including F16 and F35 fighter planes. These were accompanied by aircraft from several other NATO countries, for example an A400M transport aircraft and Eurofighter combat aircraft of the German Luftwaffe.

Then followed a massive march-past of approximately two thousand personnel of from branches of the Polish Armed Forces. The Polish troops were accompanied by allied comrades, for example elements of the NATO Multinational Battle Group Poland, including American, British, Croatian and Romanian soldiers. A Canadian Army detachment also took part in the march-past, which was closed by a detachment of the French Foreign Legion, marching traditionally at its slow pace of 88 steps per minute.

Drive-past: The final part of the parade was a drive-past of some three-hundred wheeled and tracked vehicles of the Polish Armed Forces. The range of modern vehicles included everything from motorcycles and quads, through wheeled and tracked armoured personnel carriers, to main battle tanks and self-propelled howitzers.

Just to list some of the vehicles, among the fleet were: 155mm L/52 K9A1 self-propelled howitzer; 155mm L/52 Krab self-propelled howitzer; M120K self-propelled mortar systems based on the chassis of the 8X8 Rosomak wheeled AIFV; K239 Chunmoo multiple launch rocket systems based on 8×8 Jelcz truck chassis; 122mm WR-40 Langust multiple rocket launcher; K2 Black Panther main battle tanks; M1A2 SEPV3 Abrams main battle tanks; Leopard 2PL main battle tanks; BWP Borsuk tracked amphibious armoured infantry fighting vehicles; KTO Rosomak ZSSW-30 wheeled armoured infantry fighting vehicles; KTO Rosomak wheeled armoured personnel carriers; AMZ Bóbr-3 wheeled amphibious armoured reconnaissance vehicles; K151 Raycolt 4×4 light tactical vehicles; KTO Rosomak wheeled armoured command post vehicles; PWA AERO 4×4 airmobile troops vehicles; WEM Rosomak wheeled armoured ambulances; MS-20 Daglezja armoured vehicle launched bridges; and Baobab-K mine scattering systems mounted on the Jelcz 8×8 truck chassis.

Vehicles from some NATO partners also took part in the drive-past, namely there were: British Army Jackal Mobility Weapon-Mounted Installation Kits of the Light Dragoons; Cheetah self-propelled anti-aircraft guns of the Romanian Army; and M1A2 SEPv3 Abrams main battle tanks of the US Army.

Vehicles with Cope Cages: One of the threats armed forces face on the modern battlefield are Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) of all sizes, that recently have emerged in vast numbers. It is therefore interesting to note that some of the vehicles participating in the drive-past featured ‘Cope Cages’ in order to protect them from UAV strikes. Vehicles seen fitted with this kind of stand-off protection were, for example: the KTO Rosomak ZSSW-30 wheeled armoured infantry fighting vehicle; the AMZ Bóbr-3 wheeled amphibious armoured reconnaissance vehicle; and the K151 Raycolt 4×4 light tactical vehicle.

The Shift Towards Uncrewed: Finally, with open warfare being waged by Russia against Ukraine just across Poland’s eastern border it was no surprise to see new Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and Uncrewed Ground Vehicles (UGV) also on display during the Warsaw parade.

[Text and all images © Carl Schulze]

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