Eleven mostly European entities want to build Polish submarines

Eleven entities have applied for the tender for submarines for the Polish Navy. – These are mainly European countries: Spain, France, Germany, the UK and Italy, and the Republic of Korea,” said Armament Agency spokesman Lt Col Grzegorz Polak.

In mid-July, the head of the Ministry of Defence, Mariusz Błaszczak, announced the launch of the ORKA programme.

– This programme, which provides for the purchase of new submarines for the Polish Navy, is one of the most important modernisation programmes of the Polish Army, the minister stressed.

A spokesman for the Armament Agency, Lieutenant Colonel Grzegorz Polak, told PAP that 11 entities had applied for the procedure.

– These are mainly European countries: Spain, France, Germany, the UK and Italy, but also the Republic of Korea,” said Lt Col Polak.

Lt Col Polak also pointed out that the above-mentioned manufacturers are among the world’s top ones.

– These are top companies and manufacturers,” he noted. As he added, now the Armament Agency would conduct a thorough verification and analysis of the presented offers. – We will have to wait a little longer for a decision,” concluded Lt Col Polak.

Announcing at the end of May the proceedings aimed at equipping the Polish Navy with new submarines, the head of the Ministry of Defence said that the aim of the proceedings “will be the purchase of submarines together with the transfer of the necessary technologies, which we want to obtain through an offset procurement”.

The purchase of new submarines has been envisaged for years in successive iterations of the Technical Modernisation Plan. The Orka programme was one of the priorities of the PMT for 2013-2022 and was also written into subsequent plans – for 2017-2026 and 2021-2035.

Originally, as part of the Orka programme, the Ministry of Defence planned to purchase three or four new submarines, and the programme’s value was estimated at PLN 10 billion. According to earlier announcements, Poland intended to buy new submarines armed with long-range cruise missiles.

Currently, the Polish Armed Forces have one submarine on board – ORP Orzeł, which was developed in the USSR and entered service with the Polish Army in the mid-1980s. In addition, since 2002, the Navy has also used small Kobben-type submarines acquired from Norway – a total of four, the last two of which were withdrawn from service in 2021.

Source: PortalMorski.pl