As reported by the Polish media, the only remaining submarine in the Polish Navy Orzeł (tail number "291", Soviet-built project 877E, in service since 1986) is completely incapacitated due to a malfunction of the torpedo armament and the identified inability to load torpedoes into its torpedo tubes.
Large diesel-electric submarine of the Polish Navy Orzeł (tail number "291") of the Soviet-built project 877E at the base in Gdynia (c) Radosław Pioch / Polish Armed Forces
It is reported that on March 22, 2021, the command of the Polish naval base in Gdynia announced a tender for the repair of torpedo tubes of the submarine Orzeł with a maximum price of 428 thousand euros, but on March 31 it was canceled due to a lack of applications. On April 2, the tender was resumed under the same conditions with the last submission date of April 15. Its results are still unknown, but Polish publications express doubts that in this case the repair will be possible.
From the published tender documentation for repairs, it became known that due to long-term non-use in all six 533-mm Orzeł torpedo tubes, the guide shoes and O-rings inside the devices were inflated, which makes it impossible to load the torpedo into the device. It is also impossible to adjust the alignment of the external torpedo loading device, which means that it is currently impossible to load torpedoes on board the boat. In addition, there is a malfunction of the Murena-E torpedo firing control unit, which is responsible for reloading the devices from inside the boat. The boat is now armed mainly with Soviet SET-53 torpedoes.
Recall that the submarine Orzeł was built for the Polish navy at the Krasnoe Sormovo plant in Nizhny Norgorod (Soviet number B-351, factory number 603) under the Soviet-Polish agreement of 1977 and was transferred to the Polish side on April 29, 1986, becoming the first export submarine of the project 877. Developed for the Navy of the People's Republic of Poland as a starting customer, the export project 877E received the code "Varshavyanka", which later spread as the name of the entire project 877.
In 2002, Poland acquired from the Navy of Norway, five small diesel-electric submarines of the Kobben (German project of 207) of the West German-built 1960-ies, but for now, all they have withdrawn from the Polish Navy three in 2017-2018 (including one used as a source of spare parts), the latter two Sep (former Skolpen) and Bielik (ex - Svenner) in March 2021. So the Soviet-built Orzeł project 877E now remains the only submarine of the Polish Navy.
Large diesel-electric submarine of the Polish Navy Orzeł (tail number "291") of the Soviet-built project 877E at the base in Gdynia (c) Radosław Pioch / Polish Armed Forces
