Patrol corvette ORP Ślązak
The newest ship of the Polish Navy is the patrol corvette ORP Ślązak. Despite the fact that many years have passed since the beginning of its construction, it is still a modern unit, disadvantaged by the lack of a complete set of weapons. Photo by Piotr Leonyak/MW RP via PGZ.
Based on the order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces No. 560 of November 22, 2019, on November 28, the flag and pennant of the Polish Navy were raised in the Naval Port in Gdynia for the first time. Patrol corvette ORP Ślązak. Its construction began exactly 18 years earlier, and it is this time - largely wasted and influenced the negative financial result of the project - that takes up a lot of space in the media comments on this ceremony. However, instead of joining the group of "judges", we will present the technical profile of the new Polish ship, and we will describe the difficult history of its creation in a separate article, leaving the readers to evaluate these events.
Ślązak is the second - after mine hunter ORP Kormoran - a ship built from scratch in Poland and adopted by the Polish Navy (MW) in the last two years. The previous flag was hoisted on a boat docked at the Presidential Pool in Gdynia, making the ceremony publicly accessible, including to MW supporters. Unfortunately, the current one was organized on the territory of a military unit, which, by definition, narrowed the circle of participants - although the rank of the event was similar. It was attended, in particular, by the Minister of National Defense Mariusz Blaszczak, Deputy Head of the National Security Bureau Dariusz Gwizdala, Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, General Yaroslav Mika, Inspector Vadm MV. Yaroslav Zemyansky, commander of the Center for Marine Operations - Naval Component Command Vadm. Krzysztof Jaworski, other active duty admirals and some retired. So is MW ashamed of its new acquisition, especially in the context of its rocky, media-attacked history? If yes, then no need. The ship, although stripped of all originally planned weapons - hopefully a transitional state - is the most modern unit of the Navy, and we should not have complexes because of it on a European scale.
The photo from the launch shows a flattened hydrodynamic cylinder, typical for the MEKO A-100 and A-200 units. Further, the trapping keel and the fin of the FK-33 stabilization system. The mark on the side shows the place where the azimuth thruster extends.
From multipurpose to patrol corvettes
At the Naval Shipyards, the construction of an experimental multi-purpose corvette of project 621 Gawron-IIM has begun. Dąbrowszczaków in Gdynia in 2001, and on November 28 of the same year her keel was laid under the number 621/1. The basis of the project was the MEKO A-100 design, the rights to which were obtained on the basis of a license purchased from the German Corvette consortium for Poland. As we already mentioned, we will present the events that preceded the start of construction, as well as the subsequent years that branded Gavron, in a separate article.
In accordance with the original plans, the ship was supposed to be a multi-purpose combat unit, armed and equipped with means of detecting and combating surface, air and underwater targets, to the extent allowed by a platform less than 100 m long and with a displacement of 2500 tons. several times since the start of the acquisition process ship, but we learned the final version only after signing a contract with the supplier of the combat system, when the ship was already becoming a patrol ship. Until now, the banks were: 76 mm Oto Melara Super Rapido cannon, 324 mm EuroTorp MU90 Impact light torpedo tubes, RIM-116 RAM General Dynamics (Raytheon) / Diehl BGT Defense missile and anti-missile systems, and the rest were to be selected from competing offers. This is a short-range anti-ship missile with a vertical launcher. The ship platform was designed to accommodate these weapons and their accompanying technical surveillance and fire control systems. This is how it was built.
The change in the classification of the future Silesian and the reduction of the combat system to artillery and electronic systems designed to monitor air and surface air did not have a significant impact on the design changes of the platform (with a few exceptions, which will be discussed below), since the design of the unit was already too advanced . The result of these actions was a hybrid carrier with a maritime combat system, typical for "fully combat" ships. This suggests that it is possible, or rather advisable, to re-equip the ship to the basic version, but considerations of this kind immediately after the raising of the flag and taking into account the full cost of building a patrol ship will probably be published soon, it is better to postpone to a later period. It is also difficult to expect that a brand new ship will be quickly returned to the shipyard for a longer period, except, for example, for scheduled repairs.
Platform
Patrol corvette ORP Ślązak has a total length of 95,45 m and a total displacement of 2460 tons. The hull of the ship is made of thin-walled (3 and 4 mm) sheets of heat-treated steel DH36 with increased tensile strength, electrically welded using the MAG method (uncoated wire in a protective gas environment ) active - argon). The use of this material, rarely used in Polish shipbuilding, made it possible to save on the weight of the structure, while maintaining its rigidity and strength. The hull consists of flat sections connected into spatial ones, from which ten main blocks were assembled. The superstructure was built in a similar way, in its manufacture non-magnetic steel was used (the roof of the wheelhouse to reduce the effect of ferromagnetic material on the compass), as well as the masts and body of the GTU GTU. It took about 840 tons of sheets and stiffeners to implement the entire steel structure.
The hull shape is similar to other ships based on the MEKO A-100/A-200 series. The hydrodynamic pear is laterally flattened in the bow, and the cross section takes the shape of the letter X to reduce the effective radar scattering area. For the same reason, a number of other solutions were used, including: flat casings on the air intakes, the correct form of the base of the antennas of electronic devices, bulwarks covering deck equipment, anchors and mooring devices were hidden in the hull, and the outer walls of the superstructures were hidden in the hull. inclined. The latter forced the use of motorized doors to facilitate their opening in sloped conditions without the risk of injury. Their supplier was the Dutch company MAFO Naval Closures BV. Measures were also taken to reduce the cost of other physical fields. The mechanisms and devices of the engine room were installed flexibly, diesel engines and gas turbine engines were placed in protective soundproof capsules. The value of the actual sound trail is measured by the SMPH14 (Sonar Field Monitoring System) developed by the Naval Technology Center of the Naval Academy in Gdynia. The thermal footprint is limited to: thermal insulation, installation of gas cooling in the exhaust line of a Canadian WR Davis Engineering Ltd. turbine, placement of diesel exhausts just above the waterline in combination with a seawater temperature reduction system, but also a seawater flushing system that can help cool the sides and add-ons.
