Several top companies from 11 countries are bidding to sell their submarines to Poland, the Polish agency responsible for the procurement of armaments has revealed.
Colonel Grzegorz Polak, the spokesman for the Armaments Agency, said that top companies and producers have come forward with bids that will be verified and analyzed. The Poles will have to consider the purchase of submarines together with the transfer of technologies necessary to operate the subs.
Poland’s Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak back in mid-July announced the Orka program, which envisaged the purchase of new submarines. It is a key part of the modernization program for Poland’s forces.
The majority of the 11 countries that have expressed their interest in supplying Poland with submarines are from Europe, including Spain, France, the U.K., Germany and Italy. But among the 11 is South Korea, a country Poland has lately done much business with.
According to the Orka modernization program worth over €2 billion, Poland intends to purchase three or four new submarines armed with long-range missiles.
At the present moment, the Polish navy only has one large submarine, a Soviet-made vessel, ORP Orzeł, which began its service in the mid-1980s. But the navy has also been using four small Kobben submarines received from Norway, two of which were withdrawn from service in 2021.
