ORP ''Ślązak'' (241) is an

offshore patrol vessel A patrol boat (also referred to as a patrol craft, patrol ship, or patrol vessel) is a relatively small naval vessel generally designed for coastal defence, border security, or law enforcement. There are many designs for patrol boats, and th ...

of 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 ...

, formerly known as . The ship is named ''Ślązak'' (). It is a licence variant of the

MEKO The MEKO family of warships was developed by the German company Blohm+Voss. MEKO is a registered trademark. The portmanteau stands for "''Mehrzweck-Kombination''" (English: multi-purpose-combination). It is a concept in modern naval shipbuilding ...

A-100 project developed by

Blohm + Voss Blohm is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Hans Blohm C.M. (born 1927), photographer and author * Hermann Blohm (1848–1930), German businessman and co-founder of German company Blohm+Voss * Irma Blohm (1909–1997), German pol ...

Construction

In 1997 Poland was invited to join

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

and became a member state on 12 March 1999. In December 1997 representatives of the Ministry of National Defence and the Polish Navy selected a conceptual design for future multipurpose corvettes. Inquiries were sent to four foreign shipyards from the UK, the US,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. The commission decided to go with the German

A-100

corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloo ...

design by

. The technical project was approved in 2001. A final agreement with Stocznia Marynarki Wojennej (Naval Shipyard in

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 ...

) was signed on 27 November 2001 for construction of one '' Projekt 621'' (shipyard designation ''Gawron'') corvette, a second (optional) and five consecutive (optional). At the same time the shipyard signed a licensing agreement worth PLN 60 million for the use of the MEKO A-100 concept.Okręt Gawron kulisy cz. II.
17 August 2012. The keel of the first ship was laid on 28 November 2001 in the presence of Poland's Prime Minister

Leszek Miller Leszek Cezary Miller (Polish pronunciation: ; born 3 July 1946) is a Polish politician who served as prime minister of Poland from 2001 to 2004. He has served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in 2019–2024. From 1989 to 1990, Mill ...

. In 2000 and 2002 Polish Navy commissioned two ex-US Navy s and on 23 December 2002 financing was cut to a single corvette. Unlike multirole combat aircraft acquisition financed separate of National Defence budget, the program wasn't a priority for the

Armed Forces A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a ...

and suffered from insufficient funding. The cost was initially set at PLN 250 million per ship. In 2003 estimated total cost of a single Gawron-class corvette was estimated at PLN 850 million, in 2005 at around PLN 1.1 billion. Finally in 2012 the figures have grown to PLN 1.5 billion (EUR 360 mln).ORP Slazak / Gawron / Projekt 621 (Meko A 100).
globalsecurity.org In 2007 a shipyard awarded Italian

Avio Avio S.p.A. is an Italian company operating in the aerospace sector with its head office in Colleferro near Rome, Italy. Founded in 1908, it is present in Italy and abroad with different commercial offices and 10 production sites. Avio operate ...

a USD 10 million deal to provide CODAG propulsion system. In 2008 the hull was at 80% completion when financial crisis broke up. In 2009 the defence budget was cut by 5 billion PLN.Projekt korwety Gawron dla PMW.
This led to postpone the decision to order the combat systems worth PLN 824 million that was negotiated with Thales in 2008. The ships planned armament included

RIM-162 ESSM The RIM-162 Evolved SeaSparrow Missile (ESSM) is a development of the RIM-7 Sea Sparrow missile used to protect ships from attacking missiles and aircraft. ESSM is designed to counter supersonic maneuvering anti-ship missiles. ESSM also has the ab ...

and RIM-116 RAM

surface-to-air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-ai ...

s, RBS-15 Mk 3 anti-ship missiles and

MU90 Impact The MU90 Impact is a Franco-Italian advanced lightweight anti-submarine torpedo of the third generation developed for the French Navy, French and Marina Militare, Italian navies, as well as for export. It is designed to outperform the United States ...

torpedoes. On 16 September 2009 the hull already with engines, turbines, generators,

line shaft A line shaft is a power-driven rotating shaft for power transmission that was used extensively from the Industrial Revolution until the early 20th century. Prior to the widespread use of electric motors small enough to be connected directly to ...

s and air-conditioners completed technical launching for the first time. At the same time the Ministry of Defence decided to suspend corvette financing. In April 2011 the court declared Naval Shipyard's bankruptcy. On 24 February 2012 Gawron program was cancelled. At that time the hull was largely completed at the cost of 402 million PLN (~US$130m), but equipping it with combat systems would have cost an additional 1 billion PLN (~US$320m). On 23 September 2013 an annex to 2001 construction contract was signed to complete the sole unit as patrol vessel. Due to design changes the program code name was changed to ''Projekt 621M''. ORP Ślązak modular design and systems allows to upgrade it to the corvette configuration in the future. In December 2013

Thales Group Thales S.A., Trade name, trading as Thales Group (), is a French multinational corporation, multinational aerospace and defence industry, defence corporation specializing in electronics. It designs, develops and manufactures a wide variety of aer ...

was selected as mission suite supplier for 100 million

euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

worth contract. A contract with Thales for delivery of the integrated combat system for the Ślązak was signed in March 2014. The deal include TACTICOS Combat Management System, SMART-S Mk2 surveillance radar, STING-EO Mk2 fire control radar, MIRADOR electro-optical observation and fire control system and LINK 11/16 tactical data link system. On 2 July 2015 ORP ''Ślązak'' was christened during official launching ceremony, becoming the first new Polish-built Navy ship in 21 years, since the

minesweeper A minesweeper is a small warship designed to remove or detonate naval mines. Using various mechanisms intended to counter the threat posed by naval mines, minesweepers keep waterways clear for safe shipping. History The earliest known usage of ...

ORP ''Wdzydze'' (TRB 646) was launched in 1994. It was expected to be commissioned in November 2016, however in 2016 the commissioning was delayed until 2018 and in 2018, until 2019. In 2016 the ship underwent systems trials, including engine room, power generators, fire control consoles and boats lifting and lowering hydraulic system. It will be equipped with six-seat Markos MK-500 and fifteen-seat MK-790

rigid-hulled inflatable boat A rigid inflatable boat (RIB), also rigid-hull inflatable boat or rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB), is a lightweight but high-performance and high-capacity boat constructed with a rigid hull (watercraft), hull bottom joined to side-forming a ...

s. The units OTO Melara Super Rapid MF L/62 main gun was mounted on June 15, 2016.Montaż armaty na Ślązaku.
16 June 2016

References

Projekt 621 (typ Gawron)
okretywojenne.mil.pl
ORP “Ślązak” Launched.
defence24.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Slazak (2016) Ships of the Polish Navy 2015 ships Patrol vessels