Wicher afloat. First Miecznik-class frigate launched on Gdańsk Bay

Shortly after 3:00 pm on Thursday, the frigate Wicher was officially launched on Gdańsk Bay. The hull of the first of three Miecznik-class frigates, christened a day earlier in Gdynia, had touched the water with its entire surface around noon, but only after a series of final checks and her release from the barge's supports did the ship float free on her own full buoyancy for the first time in her history. The moment closed a multi-day, multi-stage operation that PGZ Stocznia Wojenna describes as one of the most demanding undertakings in the history of Poland's shipbuilding industry.

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13 august 2026   |   15:25   |   Source: Gazeta Morska   |   Prepared by: Kamil Kusier   |   Print

fot. PGZ Stocznia Wojenna

Five days of precision: from the hall to open water

The operation that culminated on Thursday began on Sunday evening, when the illuminated hull, weighing around 6,000 tonnes, first partially emerged from the hull assembly hall, covering its first 40 metres. The hull had taken shape in the hall standing on a transport cradle, the so-called grillage, a structure weighing close to 900 tonnes, resting on supports whose height was chosen so that multi-axle platforms could drive in beneath it. On 8 August, four sets of self-propelled SPMT platforms were moved under it, comprising a combined 278 hydraulically steered axles weighing around 1,250 tonnes; hydraulic system trials were carried out and temporary water ballast was pumped into the frigate's tanks to keep her stable.

From 7:00 am on Monday came the most delicate land-based stage: the hull's transfer from the quay onto the deck of the semi-submersible barge Boabarge 33. The move proceeded slowly, with continuous monitoring of the transporters and of the barge, which had to be ballasted in real time as it took on the load - the critical moment came when roughly half the hull's length passed the edge of the quay and the barge began to take over the weight. Once the ship was in position, the transporters lowered Wicher and her cradle onto keel blocks and rolled back ashore; every support point under the hull had been determined in advance by the design office. The deballasted barge was then towed to the southern quay, where Wednesday's christening ceremony took place. Before heading out onto the bay, all technological openings below the waterline were hermetically sealed.

Nor was the barge launch itself an improvisation: the method was written into the Miecznik programme's feasibility study together with the decision to build a covered assembly hall, with the solution developed by Britain's Babcock. It is gentler on a modern, electronics-laden warship than a traditional slipway launch, as the hull stays level throughout and is never exposed to launching stresses.

Submersion with three hold points

Thursday's finale could begin only within a weather window approved 24 hours in advance. Early in the morning, the towing team - Fairplay VII, Multratug 3 and the pusher Tur-W-01 - led the barge and frigate out of the Port of Gdynia to the designated area of Gdańsk Bay, at least 26 metres deep. There, Boabarge 33 dropped her 4.5-tonne bow anchor on a 330-metre chain, with a tug holding her position from astern.

Then began what three years of construction had been building towards: the controlled flooding of ballast tanks holding a combined 37,750 cubic metres, worked by pumps shifting up to 10,000 cubic metres of water per hour. The submersion was paused three times at control depths, so-called hold points - at each of them, technical teams physically entered the key watertight compartments below the waterline to rule out even the smallest leaks. An independent emergency system of six dewatering pumps stood ready aboard the frigate. Around noon, the hull touched the water with its entire surface, and once the barge's deck sank deep enough, Wicher lifted free on her own buoyancy, drawing around 3.8 metres at a mass exceeding 4,000 tonnes including ballast. Shortly after 3:00 pm, the operation was officially complete - the frigate was afloat.

After the vessels separated, tugs took over the frigate to bring her to the Guest Quay of PGZ Stocznia Wojenna. The barge will return to the yard separately, carrying the transport cradle structure on her deck.

No sonar dome yet, and the number 274 on the hull

Careful observers will notice that Wicher entered the water without the bow dome of her hull-mounted sonar. That is deliberate: the dome protrudes below the line of the hull's bottom, which would have complicated transport on the SPMT platforms and the ship's seating on the barge's supports. It will be fitted at a later stage of construction, in dock, together with work on the underwater part of the hull. The ship will ultimately carry an extensive hydroacoustic suite: a hull-mounted Thales Blue Hunter sonar, a Thales CAPTAS-2 variable-depth towed array and a Wavefront Sentinel IDS system for detecting divers and small underwater objects, complemented by a bathymetric probe and a Thales TUUM-6 underwater telephone.

At the christening, the ship also received her pennant number, 274 - the same number carried by her predecessor, the Project 30bis destroyer Wicher, which served in the Polish fleet into the 1970s. The symbolic continuity of the name now has its painted-on-the-hull dimension as well.

- In giving a ship her name, we place a soul into the hull - Inspector of the Polish Navy Vice Admiral Jarosław Ziemiański said at Wednesday's christening ceremony.

A ship the Polish fleet has never had

A simple comparison captures the scale of Thursday's event: the last time a combat ship was launched at a Polish yard was in 2015, and it was the patrol vessel ORP Ślązak, a unit nearly four times smaller than Wicher. At 138.7 metres in length, 20.26 metres in maximum beam and a target displacement of around 7,000 tonnes, the frigate will be the largest combat ship ever built in Poland - and, once in service, the largest combat ship in the entire history of the Polish Navy. For comparison: the light cruisers ORP Dragon and ORP Conrad, loaned from Britain during the Second World War, displaced around 5,600-5,900 tonnes at full load, and the only larger vessel in Polish naval history was ORP Bałtyk, a disarmed cruiser bought from France that served between the wars as an accommodation hulk - hardly a combat ship.

Her fit-out will include four Mk 41 vertical launchers with CAMM-family anti-aircraft missiles, eventually joined by the CAMM-MR developed with the United Kingdom, the TACTICOS combat management system integrated with the involvement of OBR CTM, Thales radars led by the four-panel SM400 array, NSM anti-ship missiles, a 76 mm gun in the Strales version - which Wicher will carry as the first Polish warship - two OSU-35K guns from PIT-RADWAR and MU90 lightweight torpedoes. A CODAD propulsion arrangement with four 8,400 kW MTU diesels will give a top speed of 28 knots, with a crew of 120 sailors and room for around 60 additional personnel.

The tasks Wicher was built for reach far beyond classic coastal defence: the Miecznik-class frigates are to protect shipping lanes and critical infrastructure in the Baltic, including the Baltic Pipe gas pipeline and offshore wind farms, engage air, surface and underwater targets, and operate within NATO task groups. In the realities President Karol Nawrocki described a day earlier at the christening - Russia's shadow fleet, the militarised Kaliningrad exclave and a hybrid war waged on the Baltic every day - these are capabilities the Polish fleet has awaited for decades.

Burza: keel laid, pace picking up

Wicher's launch opens the way for the next ships of the series, and the greatest beneficiary is the second frigate, the future ORP Burza. Under construction since May 2025, she already has her keel laid, and the space Wicher has vacated in the hull assembly hall will now allow her block assembly to accelerate. Burza's launch is planned for 2027, with delivery to the Polish Navy in 2030. The frigate inherits her name from the legendary destroyer of 1932, one of the few Polish warships to survive the entire Second World War.

Huragan: a name awaiting its debut

The third ship, the future ORP Huragan, has been under construction since April this year, with her launch planned for 2028 and delivery in 2031. Hers is a singular name: Huragan was to be a destroyer built just before the outbreak of the Second World War as a development of the Grom class, but September 1939 halted the work - and no vessel under the Polish flag has ever formally carried the name. The future ORP Huragan will thus close an account opened nearly ninety years ago.

The entire Miecznik programme, under way since 2021 and worth around PLN 15 billion after amendments, is due to conclude by the end of 2031, and Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa is already in talks about a possible fourth frigate. Wicher herself now enters the longest and most complex stage: at the outfitting quay, the installation and integration of combat systems, sensors and weapons begins, followed by harbour and sea trials. Entry into service is planned towards the end of the decade - and only then, with the raising of her ensign, will the vessel formally become ORP Wicher.

A fleet rebuilt: from the Kormorans to Orka

Miecznik is the largest, but not the only, programme rebuilding the Polish fleet. At Gdańsk's Remontowa Shipbuilding yard, the second trio of Project 258 Kormoran II-class minehunters is nearing completion - ORP Jaskółka, ORP Rybitwa and ORP Czajka are due for delivery in 2026-2027, joining ORP Kormoran, ORP Albatros and ORP Mewa already in service. The same yard is building, in cooperation with Sweden's Saab, two Project 107 Delfin-class signals intelligence ships, the second of which, ORP Henryk Zygalski, was launched in December 2025, and in May this year the Armament Agency additionally ordered two hydrographic vessels there.

At PGZ Stocznia Wojenna, in parallel with the Miecznik class, the Project 108 rescue ship Ratownik has been under construction since November 2025 - a successor worth over PLN 1.2 billion to ORP Piast and ORP Lech, in service since 1974; her keel was laid in February, the bow block will be built by Stocznia Szczecińska Wulkan, and entry into service is planned for 2029. The biggest decision has come in the Orka programme: the Polish government selected Sweden's Saab to supply three A26-type submarines, along with the lease of the A17-type submarine Södermanland for the transition period. Added to this is the formation of the Polish Navy's Missile Brigade with two additional Naval Missile Units. Poland's fleet, underfunded for decades, is undergoing its greatest rebuild since the 1990s - and Thursday's launch of Wicher is its most spectacular symbol yet.

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ORP Wicher wodowanie fregaty program Miecznik PGZ Stocznia Wojenna modernizacja marynarki wojennej

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