On July 1, 2025, the Polish shipbuilding company Remontowa Shipbuilding (former Stocznia Północna shipyard) in Gdansk hosted the launching ceremony of the new generation lead reconnaissance ship Jerzy Różycki (construction number 107/1, tail number "261") of project 107 (code Delfin), which is being built for the Polish Navy. The ship was launched on the same day from the launching dock.
The new generation reconnaissance ship Jerzy Różycki (construction number 107/1, tail number "261") of project 107 (code Delfin), which is under construction for the Polish Navy, is located in the launching dock of the Polish shipbuilding company Remontowa Shipbuilding before launching. Gdansk, 07/01/2025 (c) Jarosław Ciślak / Defence24.pl
On November 25, 2022, the Armaments Agency of the Polish Ministry of National Defense signed a contract with the Swedish Saab AB group as the general contractor for the design, construction and technical support of two new reconnaissance ships for the Polish Navy under the Delfin program. The total value of the contract is about 620 million euros (2.91 billion zloty).
According to the contract, Saab AB is to supply both ships and integrate advanced reconnaissance systems on them. The direct technical design of the ships for the shipbuilding part was carried out as a subcontractor by the Polish design bureau MMC Ship Design & Marine Consulting Ltd. in Gdynia, and the ships themselves are being built as a subcontractor by the Polish shipyard Remontowa Shipbuilding in Gdansk. The Polish shipyard will be responsible for the completion and testing of the ships. The installation of special equipment on the ships will be carried out by Saab partly in Gdansk and partly in Sweden.
The new Polish reconnaissance ships were named Jerzy Różycki and Henryk Zygalski in honor of the outstanding Polish mathematicians and cryptologists who in the 1930s hacked the encryption system of the German Enigma cipher machine and created a device for its decryption ("cryptobomb").
The first steel cutting ceremony for the lead ship Jerzy Różycki (construction number 107/1, tail number "261") was held at Remontowa Shipbuilding on April 27, 2023, and the official laying ceremony was held on July 27, 2023. The lead ship has now been launched. The first steel cutting ceremony for the second Henryk Zygalski ship (construction number 107/2, tail number "264") was performed on November 15, 2023, and the official laying took place on January 23, 2024.
Initially, the delivery of both ships was scheduled for 2026 and 2027, but now the deadline for their commissioning has been postponed to 2027 and 2028. They are supposed to replace both currently in operation Nawigator (tail number "262") and Hydrograf (tail number "263") project 863 reconnaissance ships in the Polish navy, which have been in service since 1975-1976 (and were also built at the Stocznia Północna shipyard). Both of them are part of the Group of reconnaissance ships of the 3rd Flotilla of the Polish Navy based in Gdynia.
The new Polish ships are actually a variant of the Swedish A 202 Artemis reconnaissance ship, built for the Swedish Navy by the Saab group as a general contractor, also according to the scheme with the design and construction of the hull in Poland. In April 2017, the Swedish defense procurement agency Foersvarets materialverk (FMV) awarded the Saab group a contract worth 730 million Swedish kronor (about $ 70 million) for the construction of a new Artemis reconnaissance ship to replace the A 201 Orion reconnaissance ship, which has been in the Swedish navy since 1984, with delivery in 2020. Another 500 million kronor ($48 million) was estimated at the cost of the ship's special reconnaissance equipment, supplied directly by FMV.
The design of the Artemis ship was carried out as a subcontractor by the same Polish design bureau MMC Ship Design & Marine Consulting Ltd. in Gdynia, and the construction of the hull was carried out as a subcontractor by the Polish shipyard Stocznia Remontowa Nauta SA also in Gdynia. The ship was officially laid down at Nauta on June 19, 2018, and launched on April 16, 2019. However, later work actually stopped due to the bankruptcy of the Nauta shipyard. It was not until 2021 that the ship was towed to Sweden for completion at the Saab Koskims shipyard in Karlskrona, and on November 2, 2022, Artemis finally entered sea trials and on April 28, 2023, the FMV was commissioned. The final commissioning of Artemis for its intended purpose was carried out only in 2024.
Artemis has a total displacement of 2,300 tons, a length of 74.5 m, a width of 14 m and a draft of 3.8 m. The electric power plant consists of four diesel generator sets with a capacity of 990 kW each. Two steering columns are used for movement. The full speed is 14.4 knots, the crew is about 35 people.
The launching ceremony at the Polish shipbuilding company Remontowa Shipbuilding of the lead new-generation reconnaissance ship Jerzy Różycki (construction number 107/1, tail number "261") of project 107 (code Delfin), which is being built for the Polish Navy. Gdansk, 07/01/2025 (c) Jarosław Ciślak / Defence24.pl and Przemysław Gurgurewicz / MILMAG
Design image of the new generation reconnaissance ships of the project 107 (code Delfin) (c) Saab AB under construction for the Polish Navy
