The Kormoran II (Cormorant class), formally Project 258, is a class of mine hunting vessels dedicated for the

Polish Navy The Polish Navy (; often abbreviated to ) is the Navy, naval military branch , branch of the Polish Armed Forces. The Polish Navy consists of 46 ships and about 12,000 commissioned and enlisted personnel. The traditional ship prefix in the Polish ...

. The 2011 Defense Budget included a single vessel of this class. It was launched on 4 September 2015 and was predicted to enter service late 2016. Two more ships have been planned. Ships are built by Remontowa Shipbuilding

Gdańsk Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...

and Naval Shipyard

Gdynia Gdynia is a city in northern Poland and a seaport on the Baltic Sea coast. With an estimated population of 257,000, it is the List of cities in Poland, 12th-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in the Pomeranian Voivodeship after Gdańsk ...

consortium A consortium () is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations, or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a ...

. It will be armed with a 35mm

OSU-35K The OSU-35K ( Polish: Okrętowy System Uzbrojenia 35 mm - 35 mm Naval Weapon System) is a Polish naval remote weapon station and a close-in weapon system manufactured by PIT-Radwar. Armed with a 35 mm Oerlikon KDA autocannon, it is mea ...

naval weapon station.

Construction

Project 258 vessels are long and wide. The draft is and the displacement is 830 tons. Contrary to previous construction concepts of this type, the hull was made of non-magnetic steel instead of plastic. The advantage of the steel hull was, among other things, lower operating costs and higher fire resistance. The hull itself is divided into 33 sections. The ship's

superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...

has two floors in the fore section and one floor in the stern. The

main deck The main deck of a ship is the uppermost complete deck extending from bow to stern. A steel ship's hull may be considered a structural beam with the main deck forming the upper flange of a box girder and the keel forming the lower strength mem ...

has full bulwark. When constructing the ship, efforts were made to limit the unit's detectability by radars. It is powered by two combustion engines with a capacity of 1,360 hp each, which allows a maximum speed of . Additionally, the minesweeper has a

bow thruster Manoeuvering thrusters (bow thrusters and stern thrusters) are transversal propulsion devices built into or mounted to either the Bow (watercraft), bow or stern (front or back, respectively) of a ship or boat to make it more manoeuvrable. Bow th ...

. The main armament of the ship is the

naval weapon system armed with a 35mm Oerlikon KDA autocannon. The ship is equipped with the Integrated Combat System manufactured and supplied by CTM, including: SCOT combat management system, passive defense system, underwater observation system, including SHL-101 / TM and SHL-300 sonar stations and a system of remotely and wirelessly fired charges explosives for destroying

sea mines A naval mine is a self-contained explosive weapon placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Similar to anti-personnel mine, anti-personnel and other land mines, and unlike purpose launched naval depth charges, they are ...

"Toczek". On the other hand, Xblue Inertial Navigation Systems (INS) have been selected to provide critical navigation capabilities to the Polish Navy’s new-build Kormoran II class mine countermeasure vessels.

Description

The main tasks of the Kormoran II type units include searching, classification, identification and fighting sea mines, identification of fairways, guiding units through mine hazard waters, putting mines and remote control of self-propelled anti-mine platforms.

Vessels

A lead ship ORP Kormoran (601) was commissioned on 28 November 2017. In summer 2018 building of a second ship of this project - named ORP Albatros (602) - was initiated. Albatros was launched on 10 October 2019 and entered service on 28 November 2022. Construction of third ship, ORP Mewa (603), started on 10 October 2019. Mewa was launched on 17 December 2020 and entered service on 22 December 2022. It's planned to build another 3 ships till the end of 2027 (initially 2031), first of which, ORP Jaskółka (604), construction started on 23 March 2023 and it's planned to enter service in July 2026. Two last vessels of Kormoran-II class, ORP Rybitwa (605) and ORP Czajka (606), are scheduled to start construction in December 2023, October 2024 and to enter service in March and October 2027 accordingly.

References

{{Kormoran II class minehunter Mine warfare vessels of Poland Science and technology in Poland