Polish Oncilla combat vehicles, manufactured by Mista from Stalowa Wola, have proven themselves on the battlefield. A hundred of them are already fighting on the front. The Ukrainian army has ordered another batch of “predatory cats”.
We wrote about the Polish Oncilla armored vehicles manufactured by the Polish company Mista from Stalowa Wola two years ago, when the first batch of 24 “predatory cats” was received by the Ukrainian army. The Polish transporters were delivered just in time, in March 2022, when the fate of Ukraine was being decided after the Russian attack. For a long time, there was silence about Polish armored vehicles. The fact that the Ukrainian army is heavily using Oncilla during frontline combat was evidenced primarily by photos of Ukrainian soldiers on whom the combat vehicles from Stalowa Wola were the heroes of the second plan. In March 2023, during the handover of another transporter (a gift from Trans Selekt), the Main Directorate of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense issued a significant announcement: “There are already 30 such machines in combat. They performed well on the battlefield, they saved lives.”
After a year of silence on the fate of the Oncilla combat vehicles, the media published the Ukrainian side’s thanks for the delivery of another “predatory cat” (oncilla is a species of predatory cat living in South America). The Ukrainian services thanked the Polish company Trans Selekt on their website, which fully financed the purchase of another armored vehicle manufactured on the San River and donated it to the Ukrainians.
The good reputation of Polish transporters “resulted” in the delivery of another 70 vehicles by the Polish company from the San River – in March this year, Mista announced that the 100th vehicle had been produced for Ukraine. In the meantime, there were reports that Ukraine intended to order another 200 Oncilla vehicles.
The transporters produced in Poland have proven to be extremely durable, among other things, due to the vehicle’s good armor (compliant with level 2 of the STANAG 4569 standard), which withstands fire from 7.62×39 mm projectiles. Under the hood of the Oncilla there is an engine with 190 or 209 HP. The Oncilla is richly equipped with, among others, communication and satellite navigation systems, a thermal imaging camera allowing for operations in difficult lighting conditions, an automatic fire extinguishing system. It is armed with a 12.7 mm NSW machine gun (shooting position) or optionally with an unmanned module.
Oncilla is highly mobile and can handle any terrain, as Ukrainian soldiers who had the opportunity to use these vehicles previously emphasized. On paved roads, the driver can accelerate this transporter to up to 120 km/h. The Mista company, drawing conclusions from the vehicle’s use on the battlefield, is already developing a successor – Oncilla II. The domestic transporter has already been offered to the Polish army and the Border Guard, but so far Mista’s offer has not met with a positive response from our Ministry of Defense.