The Remontowa Shipbuilding S.A. shipyard today held a ceremony to lay the keel of the fourth in a series of Kormoran II-type mine destroyers. This is another milestone in the realization of this project. The ship, which will be named ORP Jaskółka, will join the fleet of the 12th Minesweeper Squadron of the 8th FOW, stationed in the Swinoujscie War Port.
The ceremony was attended by, among others, Kmdr. Piotr Skóra, Head of Maritime Technology Headquarters of the Armament Agency, Kmdr. Jaroslaw Kuklinski, Deputy Commander of the 8th Flotilla of Coastal Defense, Kmdr. Lt. Slawomir Gora, commander of the 12th Minesweeper Squadron, representatives of: the Research and Development Center for Marine Technology Center headed by President Marcin Wisniewski, PGZ War Shipyard, the classification society of the Polish Register of Shipping headed by President Henryk Śniegocki, the Remontowa Marine Design & Consulting design office, presidents and employees of companies belonging to the Remontowa Holding group, as well as members of the Supervisory Board of the Remontowa Shipbuilding S.A. shipyard.
The next milestone for this project will be the launch. This is scheduled for mid-2024. The handover of the vessel will take place in 2026.
According to the provisions in the contract, three units will be built. Sheet burning for the construction of the second mine destroyer will begin in January next year. The same process for the construction of the third ship is scheduled for October 2024, and both units will be handed over in 2027.
ORP Jaskółka is already the fourth mine destroyer of the Kormoran II type (displacement: up to 850 t, overall length 58.50 m, max. width 10.30 m) under construction at Remontowa Shipbuilding. The first prototype vessel ORP Kormoran, designed and built in the formula of research and development work, entered service in November 2017. In addition, its operation allowed modifications to be made in the construction of the next serial mine destroyers. Thanks to them, ORP Albatros and ORP Mewa (handed over to the Ordering Party in 2022) as well as the next three contracted vessels will have optimal capabilities for operating in difficult hydrometeorological conditions. The fundamental and most significant changes introduced on the serial units, concern artillery armament and underwater mine countermeasure systems.
Kormoran II-type mine destroyers are designed to search for, identify and combat sea mines and other objects and explosives remaining both in the water depths and on the bottom of bodies of water. This applies both to operations in the Polish economic zone and missions in tactical groups in the Baltic and North Sea (teams of NATO, EU or multinational coalition forces vessels).
The ship’s design, carried out by Remontowa Holding’s Remontowa Marine Design & Consulting design office, provides it with a very low physical field signature and high maneuvering performance. Like the prototype, the serial units will have an amagnetic steel hull.
Photos: Slawomir Lewandowski / PortalMorski.pl