Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1407425
best chances of succeeding. This solution would diminish the risk of delays or potential fiasco. However, one should also note that most of the navies around the world tend to seek solutions that would be based on larger vessels, bigger than the classic minehunters. Step as such makes it possible to embark a higher number of larger, and far more advanced, surface, submersible, and aerial unmanned platforms on such ships. Secondly, a larger vessel is far more flexible - it can be easily tailored to carry out a broader spectrum of missions, stepping beyond the realm of minehunting alone. The above step has already been taken by the Belgians, or by the Dutch. Royal Navy and Svenska Marinen are also quite advanced in the effort to create multi-mission minehunters. It seems justified for the Polish Navy as well. This is mainly because the service is about to face major quantitative reductions. Hence it would be reasonable to acquire warships that would be capable of working in more than a single, mine- hunting role. ever, the assumptions contained in the 2022-2035 Technical Modernization Plan state that the Polish Navy is about to receive another three mine countermeasure vessels. The acquisition process regarding the above warships is to begin after 2026 (as the current plans envisage). However, the representatives of the Polish Navy assume that the vessels would come in a form of a second lot of Kormoran-class MCMVs - refined, based on expe- riences gathered in the operational use of the first lot. However, the plans above are doubtful, primarily due to the long break be- tween the building of both lots of the MCMVs. As the Remontowa Shipbuilding shipyard claims, 6 to 7 years of stagnancy period between the commissioning of ORP Mewa and building of a new vessel would render the company unable to build so specialized vessels. This pertains to the HR gaps, and high costs related to maintaining the aforesaid capabilities - a necessity would emerge to liquidate the infrastructure and tools, as well as the hall tailored to building hulls made out of austenitic steel. There are also some doubts about the expected shape that the new vessels would take. Currently, the plan to base the new ves- sels on the first series of MCMVs (conventional ones) has the www.fragoutmag.com