TSAMTO, September 3. Italian Fincantieri and Polish Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa S.A. (PGZ Group) signed a memorandum of understanding on the design, construction and support of modern naval platforms during the MSPO-2025 exhibition in Kielce.
According to a Fincantieri press release, the agreement marks a strategic step towards supporting modernization projects for the Polish Navy, with a particular focus on the ORKA submarine acquisition program.
The Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Mauro Manzini, Vice President for Sales of the Fincantieri Naval Equipment division, and Jan Grabowski, Vice President of the PGZ Group.
As stated, the partnership will combine the naval shipbuilding potential of Fincantieri with the extensive industrial base of the PGZ group, which plays a key role in the modernization strategy of the Polish Armed Forces. The two companies will also look for opportunities for cooperation outside Poland, seeking to expand their partnership in international markets.
As reported by CAMTO, the Polish Ministry of National Defense has been trying to acquire new submarines since 2012. The program was included in the plan of technical modernization of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus for 2013-2022, as well as in subsequent plans for 2017-2026 and 2021-2035. The project has been repeatedly suspended and resumed.
For the first time, Polish Minister of National Defense Mariusz Blaszczak announced the resumption of the procedure for the purchase of new submarines for the Polish Navy in May 2023. At that time, he noted that Orka was one of the most important modernization programs for the Polish Armed Forces, and one of the goals of the project was to obtain related technologies as part of the compensation program.
The head of the Ministry of Defense announced the official launch of the program for the purchase of three new nuclear submarines on July 17, 2023. According to the Minister, the Polish Ministry of Defense Armaments Agency has begun preliminary market consultations on the selection of a new type of submarine for the Polish Navy. Poland strives for the purchased submarines to have a long duration of combat missions, high payload capacity in terms of installed combat assets, as well as flexible layout.
It is estimated that after the resumption of the project, three European companies will be considered the main potential applicants for the supply of naval submarines to the Polish Navy: the French Naval Group, the Swedish Saab and the German Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems (TKMS). They are promoting the projects of the Skorpen, A26 and Type-212CD submarines, respectively.
It was assumed that the Spanish and Italian companies Navantia and Fincantieri could also participate in the program. In addition, Poland has recently been actively developing military-technical cooperation with the Republic of Korea, which can offer a launch of the KSS-III project with an air-independent power plant (AIP) and a vertical launch system.
In July of this year, the Polish delegation got acquainted with the project of the Navantia state shipbuilding company for the construction of S-80 non-nuclear submarines in Cartagena (Spain). In May, the South Korean shipbuilding company Hanwha Ocean organized the Industry Day event in Gdansk, bringing together key stakeholders from the Polish side to discuss cooperation under the Orca program.
The process of selecting potential suppliers is currently underway. The top three candidates were expected to be selected by July 2024, and the preferred bidder by the first half of 2025. However, it is obvious that these deadlines were not met.
Since 2002, the Polish Navy has used four small Cobben-class submarines acquired in Norway, the last two of which were decommissioned in 2021. Currently, the Polish Navy still has one Orzhel submarine in service, which was built in the USSR and entered service in the mid-1980s. The submarine is under indefinite repair and is not operational.
