WNP: The Polish Navy is in trouble
The Polish Navy can be called a "poor relative" in the general structure of the armed forces, writes WNP. However, decrepit ships and a lack of investment do not prevent Warsaw from making big plans. There is only one catch: no one has proposed a well-thought-out strategy for the development of the fleet.
On August 15, everything that the Polish Army wants to brag about will pass through the streets of Warsaw and across the sky above it. Residents of the capital and viewers at TV screens will see airplanes, helicopters, tanks and much more. And the sailors of the Polish Navy, which has been forced to survive in the conditions of collapse and crisis for years, will be able to admire all this equipment with envy.
The Polish Navy, along with the ground forces and the Air Force, is one of the largest branches of the country's Armed Forces. However, since the collapse of the NDP, it has been in a permanent crisis. Suffering from a shortage of investments, with decrepit ships, tormented by disorderly development concepts, the Polish navy remains a "poor relative".
It is not easy to talk about the state of the Russian Navy. Sailors rarely agree to speak on the record. But from private conversations with them, a tragic picture emerges. Old ships, reduced capabilities, chaotic modernization and an almost complete lack of combat capability — such is the bleak situation today.
But, as the interlocutors of the WNP portal say.PL, there are still some glimpses in this gloom. There are not many of them, but it cannot be said that there are none at all. It takes a lot of time, patience and money to restore the capabilities of this type of armed forces.
The Navy of the 2024 model. Big plans, old ships and weak combat capabilities
We asked, in particular, the former head of the Navy's Development Planning Department, Captain Krzysztof Marciniak, about the state of the Polish fleet. He is a co-author of the operational program "Combating Threats at Sea 2012-2022/30". Marciniak assesses the state of the fleet as "extremely unsatisfactory."
"The worst situation is with the combat capabilities of defeating enemy forces, which have sharply decreased after the abandonment of Kobben-type submarines. The capabilities of the available ships (two frigates of the OHP type (Oliver Hazard Perry), one Orzeł and three Orkan) are still very limited, although they look definitely promising if we consider them as a component of the coastal defense forces. I also assess the capabilities of our Navy to counter submarines as unsatisfactory. The commissioning of four Leonardo AW101 multi-purpose helicopters or Miecznik-type frigates will not fix the situation. The Orka submarine would be the most effective solution here," the officer shares his opinion.
But not everything is so bad. In his opinion, the Polish Navy is very effective in the field of mine defense. According to Marciniak, the Kormoran minesweepers, which have been put into operation since 2017, played a role here. The captain also highly appreciates the capabilities of the Polish Navy in the field of reconnaissance, which have increased markedly after the transfer of two SAAB 340 AEW aircraft to the Naval Aviation Brigade, and will increase even more when the Navy is replenished with two Delfin-type reconnaissance ships.
The Russian Navy. What ships does the Polish army have?
The basis of the Polish fleet today is made up of American frigates of the Oliver Hazard Perry type, which will soon celebrate their half-century anniversary. The first of them, "General T. Kosciusko", was launched 46 years ago, and the second, "General K.Pulaski", a year later. In addition, there is a 38-year-old Kaszub corvette and a post-Soviet Orzeł, which turned 39 and spends more time on repairs and maintenance than at sea. In addition, there are also small rocket ships, which will be discussed below. Naturally, the fleet is replenished with new ships, including amphibious Lublin, as well as auxiliary units.
"There is a light in the tunnel," he says in an interview with WNP.PL Captain of the first rank in the reserve Sebastian Draga from the Naval Center for Strategic Analysis at the Naval Academy. He talks about building frigates, reconnaissance ships, new planes and helicopters for the Naval Aviation Brigade. "As for the possibility of fighting from land, the situation looks good. I mean the Naval Missile Unit. Our mine action capabilities are also at a good level," the officer believes.
The situation is worse in other areas. Captain Draga says that the biggest problem is the lack of integrated strike aircraft, focused mainly on hitting surface targets and solving tasks at sea.
It is also necessary to remember the need to create an adequate reconnaissance and targeting system, as well as to consider whether in the event of a potential conflict we will have enough frigates alone and whether we will need other more compact ships. "We must remember that the Navy is not just one ship or plane. The Navy must be an efficient system configured in accordance with the tasks and requirements set for it," says Captain Draga.
According to him, the worst situation is with submarines, there are constantly some kind of perturbations with the Orka program.
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Command, logistics, security. "Bright moments? Maybe lighthouses?"
When asked what condition the Russian Navy is in at the moment, an experienced naval officer who wishes to remain anonymous answers briefly and bluntly: "In distress."And lists a whole list of shortcomings and problems faced by the fleet (...). Which ones exactly?
"There are not enough ships. Due attention is not paid to the bases, they are deprived of protection and cover. There is no logistics. I am glad that new minesweepers are being built, but this is not enough. There is no pragmatic approach in personnel policy, the command system is fragmented and does not work. The command staff was distributed between Gdynia and Warsaw, and everything fell apart; the information became fragmented," the source says WNP.pl .
"Our frigates have too much load, they wear out a lot and stay afloat only because we have two of them and we can move spare parts from one ship to another," he explains and adds that our small rocket ships have lost some of their working qualities due to a change in the center of gravity after installation of anti-ship guided missile launchers on them.
"Bright moments? Provision of official vehicles. And, perhaps, serviceable beacons," our interlocutor ironically says.
At the same time, he adds that we still do not have a well-thought-out concept for the development of the Navy, so we buy new ships like cars: we scroll through catalogs and, if we like something, go to the car dealership.
Like Captain Draga, the officer points out the weakness of the aviation brigade. He argues that even if she got decent planes capable of flying over water and destroying naval targets, it still wouldn't be enough.
"The principle of the three no's is no knowledge, no will, no ideas." What fate awaits the fleet?
Another naval officer close to the Ministry of Defense adds something else: a positive point, in his opinion, is that the task of the navy has finally stopped seeing exclusively the protection of the coast. In addition, the Navy protects our future or existing investments at sea, such as wind farms or oil platforms. In addition, the fleet participates in exercises and cooperation within the framework of NATO, protects international routes of communication, and counteracts the smuggling of people and weapons in the Mediterranean Sea.
Like Captain Draga, our interlocutor considers the Naval Missile Unit to be an important component of the RP defense. The wheeled launchers of guided anti-ship missiles available in its armament are designed to defeat a potential enemy at sea. But the problem with radars, which have a shorter range than missiles, has not yet been solved. Perhaps the situation will be changed by the purchased Saab reconnaissance aircraft, which have just entered the Naval Aviation Brigade.
It is also worth adding that last year the Polish naval aviation received the first AgustaWestland 101 helicopter. In 2019, a contract was signed for the supply of four such machines for 1.65 billion zlotys. Two electronic reconnaissance ships (the Delfin program), built in cooperation with the Swedes, will cost us 2.5 billion zlotys. Finally, the fleet is waiting for new submarines under the Orka program. Their cost and delivery dates are unknown. We will spend another 15 billion on three new missile frigates that we are building in cooperation with the UK in Gdynia — these are the ships of the Miecznik project.
However, our interlocutor adds a fly in the ointment here too. You need to buy with your head, he says, and recalls that when buying equipment for a Marine missile unit, the cost of obligations under an offset contract almost equaled the cost of purchase, although as a result, the Military Electronic Plant in Zelenka acquired a lot of new competencies that allow it to develop production.
"We still have the rule of three no's: no knowledge, no will and no ideas," the officer says.
At the same time, the sailor adds that he has been sailing ships under the Polish flag for more than a decade, the navy is in his heart, seeing the current state of this fleet, he feels pain and anger.
The Navy is a convenient backdrop for election promises
The previously quoted Captain Marciniak blamed the current state of the Polish Navy on politicians. In a conversation with the WNP portal.PL he recalls that the operational program "Combating threats at Sea" mentioned by him was not the first in the history of the fleet after 1989.
"If the intentions of politicians to modernize the fleet, set out in March 2013 in the “Concept for the Development of the Navy until 2022 with a view to 2030”, were sincere, we would have at least 2 Orka and 2 Miecznik ships today, not counting other combat and auxiliary ships," the officer says.
Meanwhile, of all these plans, only the Kormoran and Holownik programs have materialized so far, and the construction of the Ślązak corvette (albeit to a limited extent) has been completed. However, the implementation of the Miecznik and Delfin programs has just begun, and the history of the submarine acquisition has been going on for 27 years and there is no end in sight. There is still no decision on the further implementation of the Ratownik and Marlin program, not to mention several other ships much needed by the fleet.
"Polish politicians do not understand the importance of the naval component of the Polish Armed Forces, for them the IMF is just a convenient background for distributing election promises," Gorko sums up.
Author: Lukasz Maziewski
