At the Kielce arms fair, the Polish Armoured Group promoted the maritime area of its activity with large momentum, announcing the fight for large abroad contracts concerning, among others, the construction of destroyers of the Kormoran mines and frigates of the kind Swordfish. “The PGZ War Shipyard is 1 of the most modern in Europe in terms of infrastructure,” said Jan Grabowski of the PGZ Board.
ORP Kormoran, 2022.
The national holding exhibition presented at the global Defence manufacture Salon was the largest not only in terms of surface – it occupied 10% of the full exhibition area – but besides military equipment. And many of these solutions have been shown publically for the first time.
One of the topics that Polish Armed Forces Group it promoted with momentum, was a maritime area of its activities and associated plans. On the 3rd day of the fair, representatives of the Management Board of the PGZ and the heads of the main maritime companies of the Group – the PGZ Shipyard and the investigation and improvement Centre of the Marine Technology Centre from Gdynia – presented their key projects to journalists. – The most crucial programme we are implementing is the “Meaner” programme. The construction of 3 units takes place in 1 plus 1 strategy (the work on the ships is carried out simultaneously – ed.) Construction of the ‘Wild’, first ship, is already at an advanced phase and its launch was scheduled for August next year. In the case of the second unit There's already been a burning of sheets., and the position of the keel was planned for December of this year – announced Jan Grabowski from the Management Board of the Polish Armed Forces Group. As he stated, the Sword is simply a "great export potential" for the PGZ. This applies to both contracts in which the Polish holding company would be a stand-alone supplier and contracts in which it would participate as a co-producer of the Arrowhead 140 of Babcock, due to the fact that the task is modelled on them.
Visualization of the rocket frigate Swordfish.
– We are already delivering components to the units presently produced by Babcock and we are counting on closer cooperation with others," said Grabowski, referring to the fact that the British shipbuilding company has obtained an order to build another six Arrowhead frigates for abroad contractors.
Although the sale of Swords of another army would be a immense success of Poland and the PGZ-et, manufacture experts indicate that it is more realistic to get construction contracts Cormoran mine destroyers. Unofficially, it is known that 2 countries are curious in them, and the talks are going in a "good direction".
Jan Grabowski emphasized that the offer PGZ War Shipyard, supported by Remontowa Shipbuilding S.A. (with which Cormorans are built in the consortium), attracts the attention of contractors. – We remember perfectly well the condition of the War Shipyard 4 years ago, erstwhile he started the program "The Sword". It is presently 1 of the most modern shipyards in Europe in terms of infrastructure, and surely in our part of Europe," he pointed out.
Another marine program with which PGZ has its hopes is Digital Baltic. Marcin Wiśniewski, president of the investigation and improvement Centre of the Marine Technology Centre, who presented this solution at the Kielce Fair, said that the strategy was expected to be a model of a combined image of the operational situation in the maritime domain, based on data from military and civilian sources. And he emphasized that Digital Baltic was created thanks to engineers from all over Poland. “We focus on competences and the best specialists for this task we look for throughout the country. Therefore, we hired engineers from Zakopane, for example, who carry out their tasks remotely – he commented.
Marcin Ryngwelski, president of the PGZ War Shipyard, admitted that the acquisition of personnel with appropriate cognition and experience is the biggest problem of the full shipbuilding industry. For future young workers with method education, the shipyard cooperates with secondary schools and universities.
