Romeo Squared

Defense with a Baltic edge

Poland

Poland expands army with new division

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The Polish Army has officially begun assembly of the 18th Mechanized Division. In early November, defense minister Mariusz Blaszczak approved the schedule for the formation of the unit. It will be based in the Eastern part of the country near the borders to Belarus and Ukraine. That reports bmpd.

With this new division, the Polish Land Forces will have a total of four divisions. The number of divisions has fluctuated a bit in recent years. Until recently there were four divisions, but this was reduced to three when the 1st Mechanized Division was dissolved in 2011. The decision to return to four was made in 2016 as a result of increased tensions with Russia.

The existing structure consists of the 11th Armored Cavalry Division, and the 12th and 16th Mechanized Divisions, which include a total of 10 brigades. In addition to these, Poland also has six independent brigades.

The 18th Mechanized Division will adopt some of the existing brigades, so it is not an entirely new formation. The 16th Division has four brigades today, so they will have to give one away. Also the new division will subsume the independent 21st Podhale Rifles Brigade. A third mechanized brigade will be formed from scratch, and it will be ready by 2022. The new brigade will be based in Lublin. Divisional structures will be formed gradually until 2026. This includes intelligence, artillery, air defense etc.

The Polish armed forces are in the midst of an ambitious expansion which doubles the number of personnel under arms from 100,000 to 200,000 and brings defense spending up to 2.5 percent of GDP. Of these new soldiers, there will be 50,000 professionals and reservists respectively.

Recently, Poland has had surprising success with a push for a permanently based American armored division in the country. Poland has offered to contribute up to $2 billion to the construction of the base. I think permanent stationing of U.S. troops in Poland is a bad idea, and Michal Kofman has presented the arguments well. In short, it makes more sense with a rotational scheme on NATO’s Eastern flank and permanently based structures in Germany. And if you were to permanently base something in Poland, an armored division is probably not the tool to choose. But the Polish president Andrzej Duda has managed to gain some traction in Washington for the proposal, perhaps not least because he suggested to name the base “Fort Trump”.

Poland begins sea trials on OPV “Ślązak”

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The Polish Navy has started sea trials with the new offshore patrol vessel Ślązak. If things go as planned, the ship will be ready for service in March 2019. That reports navaltoday.com.

Ślązak is 95 meters long and displaces 1800 tons. It is based on the MEKO A100 design, which means that it is related to the German Braunschweig-class. The physical similarities between these two classes of ship are easy to spot.

Slazak
OPV Ślązak. Photo: Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa

I have expressed my enthusiasm for this particular size of ship before. In the 1800-2000 tons range, ships are seaworthy enough for expeditionary operations but still affordable. Many navies in Europe will build such ships in the coming years. Either because they cannot afford frigates, or because they cannot afford to use their frigates in low-intensity maritime security operations.

The construction of Ślązak has been a troubled process. It began in 2001, and the ship was intended to be the first in a series of seven Gawron-class corvettes. These would constitute the backbone of Poland’s future surface fleet. Unfortunately, the project suffered from insufficient funding, and Ślązak was only launched in 2009. By then the international financial crisis had made the financial restrictions even worse. The Gawron project was halted, and construction of the second ship never began. In 2012, the Polish government decided to scrap all plans to finish Ślązak. After intensive lobbying by the Polish Navy and the ship construction industry, this decision was reversed in 2013. It was decided to finish Ślązak as an offshore patrol vessel (OPV), which is a lot cheaper than fitting out a corvette.

17 years from initial construction to sea trials is a horrendous time period, which secures Ślązak a position on the list of scandalous ship projects. It is, however, a meaningful ship for Poland to possess, so one can hope for a more successful time to come. The Polish surface fleet has been neglected for a while, so it is good to see them get a new platform with some flexibility.

Ślązak will be equipped with a 76 mm OTO Melara gun, two 30 mm Marlin-WS guns, and four man-portable air-defense missile launchers of the Polish Grom type. On the sensor side, it will have a SMART-S Mk2 air and surface surveillance radar, STING-EO Mk2 fire control radar, and the MIRADOR electro-optical sensor. It will have the TACTICOS combat management system from Thales and LINK 11/16 for exchange of data. So while it does not have the missiles and torpedoes that were intended in the original Gawron project, it still qualifies as a reasonably capable ship which can integrate into a naval force and deliver surveillance data.

Poland extends service life of Perry-class frigates until 2024

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Poland has extended the service life of its two Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates until 2024. That reports Janes.

The prolonged service time has required some additional maintenance work and upgrades of subsystems. ORP General Kazimierz Pulaski has already completed these works during a scheduled docking. This includes the installation of Link 16 and an upgrade to the command system to allow automatic detection and tracking of aerial and surface targets. The 76 mm. gun (Mark 75) has been replaced with a refurbished analogue. Fire control systems, radar, and generators have been updated, and the Mk 13 missile launchers have been upgraded to mod 4 block 6 standards. The SM-1 air defense missiles have been upgraded, and the ship has received more modern electronic warfare equipment and air defense systems.

There is also equipment which is not upgraded, and in order to ensure the prolonged service life of the ships, the use of some systems like the Phalanx 20 mm close-in weapon system has been restricted.

The other frigate, ORP Tadeusz Kosciuszko is expected to receive the upgrades in the second half of 2018.

These upgrades give a substantial lift to Poland’s frigates. However, it is not cutting edge technology, and 2024 is not far away in the grand scheme of things. So Poland will still have to think about possibilities for a renewed frigate capability.

Poland connects the European security puzzle

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Judging by the growing engagement of Europe in security cooperation, the times have never been more supportive for a combined strategy. Defense spending is on the rise, new structures are established, and old ones reinforced. The Russian strategy of “divide and conquer” has brought the responding “ally and counter”.

…Continue reading

Poland’s love-hate relationship with the EU

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Tuula Koponen has a very interesting account of Poland’s troubled relationship with the European Union in Diplomaatia.ee. It seems like a love-hate relationship where Poland is in opposition to almost everything that the EU stands for, yet the EU is extremely popular among Poles with an 88 percent approval rating.

Kaczyński’s policy in Poland is based on the same values as Orbán’s in Hungary. Family, faith and fatherland are important. Both swear allegiance to democracy, but both find liberal democracy and multiculturalism as abhorrent as repressive communist power.

Poland thinks, like Hungary, that it is fighting foreign dominance. And, just like Hungary, Poland also wants to become a model state that the rest of Europe can learn from.

It is said that Orbán’s “illiberal democracy” has the same origin as Vladimir Putin’s in Russia. Even though the Polish model may look the same from outside, it is never acknowledged. Russia is now a strategic partner for Hungary, but Poland’s main enemy. Polish identity is based on opposition to Russia.

On the surface this has little to do with defense politics, but in the long term it is dangerous for the alliance cohesion if Poland has dramatically different values from the other NATO countries in the Baltic region.

Ocean capable corvettes could be affordable force enablers

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Yesterday the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that Soobrazitelnyy, a corvette from the Baltic Fleet, had passed through the Suez Canal from the Red Sea into the Mediterranean. This was the latest in a series of press releases covering the journey of two Steregushchiy class corvettes and an auxiliary vessel from the Baltic Fleet.

The three ships Boiky, Soobrazitelnyy, and Kola departed from Baltiysk on 14 October, and it was announced that they would complete tasks in the Atlantic Ocean. Since then, the ministry’s press service has been generous with updates on the journey. Reports have been made on the passage of the Strait of Gibraltar, AAW and ASW exercises, a port visit in Limassol, how the ships split up with Boiky completing tasks in the Mediterranean (I suppose around Syria) and Soobrazitelnyy passing the Suez Canal to participate in anti-piracy operations and visit the port of Djibouti. With the ships reunited in the Mediterranean I suppose it is reasonable to assume that the group will head home soon, perhaps in time for Christmas which in Russia is on 7 January.

Obviously, with this massive press coverage one has to wonder whether the point of the whole journey was to generate attention. Nevertheless I do think that the proof of concept is really interesting. Medium sized warships that are large enough to endure the ocean yet small enough to be affordable could prove very useful in the future.

These are ships with a displacement around 2000 tons. Aside from the Russian Steregushchiy class, I think the German Braunschweig class and the British Batch 2 River Class are interesting examples of such warships. A look at the Baltic navies reveals that most only have ships that are much larger or much smaller.

For countries like Denmark, Norway, and Poland such medium sized warships could permit the country to participate in low-risk maritime security operations while the larger frigates could focus on tasks where their broad warfare capabilities are needed. For other countries like Sweden ocean capable corvettes could make it possible to participate at all.

US approves sales of Guidable MLRS and air-to-air missiles to Poland

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The American Defense Security Cooperation Agency has approved the sale of the HIMARS rocket system to Poland from Lockheed Martin. This will give Poland a potent ground-to-ground missile system capable of hitting targets at ranges up to 300 kilometers. Poland intends to equip three divisions with the high-precision missiles which will be installed on Polish Jelcz vehicles.

The sale of 150 additional AIM-120C-7 AMRAAM medium range air-to-air missiles for Poland’s F-16 fighters was also approved. Poland had expressed a desire to buy the improved AIM-120D, but apparently USA was not willing to provide this missile that so far only has been exported to Australia.

Poland receives new minehunter

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The first ship in a series of new minehunters joined the Polish Navy this week when ORP Kormoran officially entered service at a ceremony in Gdynia. It was expected that Poland could receive Kormoran in 2016 but the process was delayed by about a year.

The Kormoran project was initially initiated in 1999, but it was canceled in 2002. In 2007 the project was reactivated under the name of Kormoran II, and in 2013 the final contract with the shipyard was signed. In 2015 Kormoran was launched, and since then technical trials have been conducted.

Kormoran is a modern minehunter that is constructed of non-magnetic steel. It features a low noise profile and high maneuverability due to the two Voith Schneider propellers that combine propulsion and steering in one unit. The ship has a displacement of 850 tons. The crew size is 45 persons, and the maximum speed is 15 knots. It operates the Saab Double Eagle and Kongsberg’s Hugin 1000 MR autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV).

The two next ships of the class are the Albatros and the Mewa which are expected to enter service in 2019 and 2022. The three ships will replace the old Krogulec-class ships built in the 1960s.

Sale of Patriot missiles to Poland approved

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The U.S. State Department has approved the sale of Patriot missiles to Poland, reports Reuters:

The proposed sale includes 208 Patriot Advanced Capabilty-3 (PAC-3) Missile Segment Enhancement missiles, 16 M903 launching stations, four AN/MPQ-65 radars, four control stations, spares, software and associated equipment.

In addition, Poland is authorized to buy U.S. government and contractor technical, engineering and logistics support services as well as range and test programs for a total estimated potential program cost of up to $10.5 billion.

It is expected that the final negotiated price will be lower. Poland has mentioned an estimated price of $7.6 billion on the deal.

Fire on Polish submarine

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Poland’s Kilo-class submarine Orzeł has had a fire accident while docked in Gdynia, reports Naval Today. The damages are so bad that it is uncertain that Orzeł will ever come into service again.

Orzeł is Poland’s only Kilo-class submarine. Poland also has four Kobben-class submarines but they have all passed the 50 year mark and are much less capable than Orzeł.

What a terrible string of bad luck for NATO’s submarine fleet in the Baltic. Last week the German Navy announced that none of their submarines are operational for the time being, and now Poland may effectively be in the same situation.