Zakłady Mechaniczne Tarnów (; ) is a Polish

defense Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense industr ...

manufacturing

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...

. Based in the city of

Tarnów Tarnów () is a city in southeastern Poland with 105,922 inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of 269,000 inhabitants. The city is situated in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship. It is a major rail junction, located on the strategic east– ...

, the company produces handguns, assault rifles, sniper rifles and anti-air guns. It is part of the Bumar-Labedy corporation, itself a division of the state-controlled Polish Armaments Group.

History

Initially founded during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

in 1917 as a local train repair workshop, in the

interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ( ...

the company was part of the Polish State Railways. After the company's equipment was confiscated, dismantled and sent to Germany during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the factory was rebuilt as a train repair workshop, but in 1951 it was turned into a defence contractor producing guns, firearms and machine tools.

Warsaw Pact years

From 1951 the company license-built M1939 37 mm automatic air defense guns and

Nudelman N-37 The Nudelman N-37 was a 37 mm (1.46 in) aircraft autocannon used by the Soviet Union. It was designed during World War II by V. Ya. Nemenov of Alexander Nudelman, A.E. Nudelman's OKB-16 to replace the earlier Nudelman-Suranov NS-37 and e ...

aircraft cannons used in LiM-2 and MiG-17 fighters. While Poland was still in the

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP), formally the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance (TFCMA), was a Collective security#Collective defense, collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Polish People's Republic, Poland, between the Sovi ...

, other types of Soviet-designed military equipment were also introduced: 57 mm AZP S-60 and ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft guns, 2M-3M naval cannons, armament for the

2S1 Gvozdika The 2S1 ''Gvozdika'' (, "Dianthus caryophyllus, Carnation") is a Soviet Self-propelled artillery, self-propelled howitzer introduced in 1972 and is in service in Russia and other countries . It is based on the MT-LBu multi-purpose chassis, mount ...

SP howitzer, DShK, NSV and KPV heavy machine guns, as well as domestic designs. The latter group included ZU-23-2M Wróbel universal naval gun and its successor, the artillery-rocket set ZU-23-2MR Wróbel II.

Independence and NATO years

After 1989 the company switched entirely to home-designed weapons. Those include Pallad grenade launcher, RGP-40 grenade launcher, UKM-2000 MG, LMP-2017 mortar, WKW Wilk sniper rifle, Bor rifle and ZSMU-36 missile and anti-missile system. Among projects currently developed in the Tarnów Mechanical Works are the WLKM-12 Szafir 12.7 mm multi-barrel machine gun, ZSMU-70 missile system and GA-40 belt-fed grenade launcher. In 2012, the company merged with R&D Centre "Ośrodek Badawczo-Rozwojowy Sprzętu Mechanicznego sp. z o.o.". In 2015, ZMT SA became a member of Polish Armaments Group, which concentrate over 60 armament sector companies.

References

External links

ZMT−Zakłady Mechaniczne Tarnów website
�� Defence companies of Poland Firearm manufacturers of Poland Weapons manufacturing companies Companies based in Tarnów Polish brands Manufacturing companies established in 1917 1917 establishments in Poland Polish Joint-stock companies {{poland-company-stub

History

Warsaw Pact years

Independence and NATO years

See also

References

External links