Poland cuts steel for second Kormoran II-class minehunter

September 19, 2018

Poland’s Remontowa Shipbuilding held a steel-cutting ceremony for the second Kormoran II-class minehunter for the Polish Navy at its Gdansk site on September 18.

The steel-cutting ceremony comes ten months after the lead ship in the class – ORP ‘Kormoran – entered service.

The first of the additional two ships will be named ORP Albatros and is expected to be delivered to the navy by 2020 with the third one – ORP Mewa – following suit in 2021. The contract for the construction of the additional two ships was signed between the defense ministry and Remontowa Shipbuilding SA in December 2017.

ORP Kormoran, the lead ship in the class started construction in April 2014, launched in September 2015 and entered service in November 2017.

The 58.5-meter long minehunter has a complement of 45 personnel and a top speed of 15 knots. The Polish Navy will use the minehunters to clear mines in Poland’s exclusive economic zone and to deploy them to NATO’s mine countermeasure groups in the Baltic and North Sea.

The non-magnetic steel-hulled ORP Kormoran displaces 850 tons, features the locally-developed SCOT-M combat management system and is equipped with Saab’s Double Eagle Mk III remotely operated vehicle (ROV). The ship is armed with a twin-barreled auto-cannon in addition to machine guns and rocket launchers.