I name you Wicher. Poland's first Miecznik-class frigate christened in Gdynia

- Sail the seas and oceans of the world, bring glory to the name of the shipbuilder and the Polish sailor. I name you Wicher - with these words Agata Ziemiańska on Wednesday gave the first frigate of the Miecznik programme her name. A moment later the ship's godmother cut, with a small axe, the line holding the mechanism with a champagne bottle, which shattered against the hull near the bow. At the southern quay of PGZ Stocznia Wojenna in Gdynia, beneath the side of the ship resting on its barge, the ceremony was watched together by President Karol Nawrocki and Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Both stressed that it was an important day for Poland's security and for Polish Navy.

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12 august 2026   |   16:52   |   Source: Gazeta Morska   |   Prepared by: Kamil Kusier   |   Print

fot. Kamil Kusier / Gazeta Morska

A report, the anthem and champagne against the bow

The ceremony began at 11:30 am with the President, commander-in-chief of the armed forces, receiving the readiness report, honouring the colours of the Navy's honour guard company and reviewing the detachment, which Karol Nawrocki greeted with the traditional salute to sailors. After the raising of the national flag and the national anthem, the President and the Prime Minister spoke, and the ship was blessed by clergy. The culmination was the act of christening performed by the godmother, in keeping with the maritime tradition that a ship receives her name before the hull first touches water, and the ceremony closed with the orchestra playing the Hymn to the Baltic and the Representative Song of the Polish Armed Forces, followed by a parade of the detachments.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk had been in Gdynia since morning - at 9:15 am he met the shipyard workers who built the frigate. The ceremony was also attended by Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, deputy ministers Magdalena Sobkowiak-Czarnecka and Paweł Bejda, Polish Navy commanders and representatives of the British defence ministry - present not by accident, as the Miecznik class is built under licence to the Arrowhead 140 design owned by Babcock.

A milestone and hybrid war on the Baltic

President Karol Nawrocki called the ceremony and the entire Miecznik programme a milestone in the modernisation of the Polish Navy. He acknowledged that after 1989 the fleet had been underfunded for decades and this branch of the armed forces forgotten - the breakthrough came in July 2021, with the signing of the frigate contract. The President counted the retention in Poland of control over engineering, logistics and systems integration among the programme's great achievements, and described the frigate herself as a universal combat platform whose air and missile defence capabilities guarantee security not only at sea, but also in the air and on land.

The commander-in-chief warned at the same time against treating the Baltic as NATO's internal waters, however the maps might read: he listed the threats posed by the Russian fleet, the militarised Kaliningrad exclave and the shadow fleet, stressing that Polish sailors wage a hybrid war on the Baltic every day, conducted below the threshold of open conflict, and thanked them for that daily service.

- The Polish sailor, the Polish soldier and Polish special forces will always fight for our beautiful Polish Baltic Sea - President Karol Nawrocki said.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk opened by saluting Gdynia, a city of the sea and of dreams, celebrating the centenary of its city rights, and reached for a historical analogy: he invoked engineer Tadeusz Wenda, who just over a century ago pointed to a small Kashubian village as the site for one of Europe's most modern ports, and Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski, who built the port and the shipyard with the same zeal. He also thanked foreign partners, including Poland's British allies.

- The Baltic is a Polish sea, and Poland is becoming a maritime power - the Prime Minister said.

A million parts and a hundred tonnes of weld

The host of the ceremony was PGZ Stocznia Wojenna chief executive Marcin Ryngwelski, who gave the gathering a sense of the undertaking's scale: the completed Wicher will consist of more than a million parts, and in the course of the build the yard has erected over 3,000 structural assemblies and used around 100 tonnes of welding consumables. The hull currently weighs close to 6,500 tonnes - lifting it would take six shipyard gantry cranes standing side by side.

- For us, as shipbuilders, this is one of the most important events in our history - Marcin Ryngwelski said.

Guests at the ceremony also included State Assets Minister Wojciech Balczun, Deputy Infrastructure Minister for the maritime economy Arkadiusz Marchewka, and former defence minister Mariusz Błaszczak, under whose tenure the Miecznik programme was inaugurated.

Hand in hand with London, then exports

Lord Vernon Coaker, minister at the UK Ministry of Defence, also addressed the gathering. He opened by recalling the part Polish soldiers played in the fighting of the Second World War, including on British soil, and spoke of the honour it is for the United Kingdom to take part in so ambitious a programme and to work hand in hand with Poland, naming the key British companies involved, Babcock and Thales. He also pointed to the growing threat at sea, chiefly from Russia, and the need to build defensive capabilities through international cooperation.

- This is what modern defence cooperation should look like - Lord Vernon Coaker stressed.

The British thread also had a forward-looking dimension that day. Deputy Defence Minister Magdalena Sobkowiak-Czarnecka said she had spoken with Lord Vernon Coaker about the future of the Miecznik programme, recalling that the halls of the Gdynia yard were designed specifically for building ships of this class. She announced that once the yard completes the frigates for the Polish Navy, the next step is to be the construction of ships for export, for allied nations.

A godmother from a navy home

The frigate's godmother is Agata Ziemiańska, who comes from Nieszawa in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian region, a graduate of the University of Gdańsk who works at the Port of Gdynia Authority and is privately the wife of Vice Admiral Jarosław Ziemiański, Inspector of the Polish Navy. The choice carries its own meaning: Vice Admiral Jarosław Ziemiański, tied to the fleet for decades, commanded among others the 32nd Missile Ship Squadron and the 3rd Ship Flotilla in Gdynia, and as Inspector of the Navy since 2018 has consistently pressed for frigates for the Polish fleet. It would be hard to find a home in which the birth of a new warship means more.

The most expensive ship in the history of the Polish fleet

Wicher is the first of three frigates of the Miecznik programme, the largest modernisation undertaking of the Polish Navy since 1989, valued at over PLN 15 billion. The ship, nearly 140 metres long and 20 metres wide, will reach speeds of up to 28 knots, with a crew of 120 sailors and room for around 60 additional personnel. The frigates' tasks will include protecting shipping lanes and critical infrastructure in the Baltic, including the Baltic Pipe gas pipeline and offshore wind farms, engaging surface and underwater targets, and taking part in NATO task group operations. Wicher will also be the first Polish warship armed with a 76 mm gun in the Strales version, capable of engaging cruise missiles.

Three years have passed from the keel laying in August 2023 to the christening - a pace that stands out against the history of Polish naval programmes, all the more so as ORP Burza and ORP Huragan are already taking shape in parallel in the hull assembly hall. The entire programme is due to conclude by the end of 2031.

First touch of water on Thursday

The christening closes the land-based chapter of the build. On Thursday, 13 August, the semi-submersible barge Boabarge 33 will carry the frigate out onto Gdańsk Bay, where the platform will be gradually submerged until Wicher gains buoyancy. Tugs will then bring the ship to the yard's outfitting quay, where work will continue afloat. Owing to the technical rigour of the operation, the yard does not envisage a wider media presence during the launch - transporting the ship and its controlled lowering into the water using a semi-submersible barge is one of the most demanding engineering operations ever carried out in Poland's shipbuilding industry.

Formally, the vessel will become ORP Wicher on the day her ensign is raised, upon entering service planned for the end of the decade. But she has her name - the third in the history of the Polish fleet, after the destroyer that defended the Hel Peninsula in September 1939 and the Project 30bis destroyer of the Cold War era. History has come full circle: the first Wicher arrived in Gdynia from a French shipyard, because Poland could not yet build such ships. This one was born in Gdynia.

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fregata ORP Wicher PGZ Stocznia Wojenna modernizacja marynarki wojennej program Miecznik matka chrzestna Agata Ziemiańska

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