It’s crunch time for Poland to pick a new submarine design

WARSAW, Poland — Defense officials have sent requests for information to six countries for submarine designs for the Polish Orka (Orca) submarine program, as Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s end-of-year deadline nears for picking a winning proposal.

Over the past months, delegations from the Polish ministry have visited France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden, and also met with South Korean officials to discuss their offers and readiness to cooperate with Poland’s defense industry on the potential procurement.

The planned acquisition is deemed urgent here as the Polish Navy relies on a single, outdated Soviet-designed submarine, the Kilo-class ORP Orzel. The new subs are to bolster Poland’s deterrence capacities in the Baltic Sea, as Warsaw plans to equip them with cruise missiles.

During a Sept. 17 session of the Polish government, Tusk said the planned contract is to be signed at government level, meaning a greater level of political partnership with the offering nation can be expected.

“We have plenty [of submarines] to choose from. This will be a decision, given the scale of the investment in our security, that we will make government-to-government,” the prime minister said.

During the same session, the cabinet adapted a resolution that requires the government to select the program’s “final partner” from abroad until the end of 2025.

A number of European companies that are interested in delivering between three and four subs, including France’s Naval Group, Italy’s Fincantieri, Swedish Saab, and U.K. business Babcock International, have signed deals to enhance cooperation with Polish state-run defense group PGZ.

The selected foreign supplier will be required to collaborate on the procurement with the Polish group’s subsidiary, PGZ Naval Shipyard.

The holding’s central role in the nation’s defense industry makes it an attractive partner for foreign players competing for what could be the largest naval program in Poland’s history. During the recently concluded October 2025 Baltexpo industry show in Gdansk, Spain’s Navantia became the latest player to sign an agreement with PGZ to advance its sub offer.

The agreement’s purpose is to jointly explore naval cooperation opportunities in the Polish market, “in particular connected with the submarine acquisition program” but also other procurements for the Navy, according to Navantia which is pitching its S-80-class sub.

“This Letter of Intent also includes the evaluation of the involvement of PGZ group facilities as [an] industrial partner,” the statement said.

A spokesperson for the Polish ministry told Defense News last May its experts assigned the highest scores to the offers placed by Germany, Italy and Sweden. That said, while these three bids received the highest scores, the remaining three offers have not been discarded, according to the spokesperson.

The only non-European supplier bidding for the Polish sub contract, South Korea’s Hanwha Ocean, also has an ongoing collaboration with PGZ.

“We have prepared an industrial cooperation offer to Poland that involves a transfer of technology and cooperation with PGZ and the Nauta shipyard to set up a 100% local, independent maintenance, repair, and operations capacity in Poland,” Hyunrok Park, a manager from Hanwha Ocean’s Naval Ship Overseas Business Team, told Defense News.

Park said that, to date, three KSS-III-class subs have been delivered to the Republic of Korea Navy, with a further three units to be built.

Hanwha Ocean hopes to secure Poland as the first export market for its KSS-III-class sub, all the while setting sights on Canada and Saudi Arabia, among others.

Canada has shortlisted Germany’s thyssenKrupp Marine Systems, which is also bidding for the Orca program, and Hanwha Ocean as the two potential suppliers for the nation’s program to purchase up to 12 conventionally-powered submarines.

Saudi Arabia has been on the prowl for new small-to-medium subs for a number of years. Reports have frequently cited Fincantieri as one of the leading contenders, given the close ties that already exist between the two countries.

At the 2023 IDEX exhibition, the Italian manufacturer displayed its S800 light submarine, designed for covert operations in shallow waters and told Defense News in an interview that it had attracted the interest of several Gulf region customers.

The S800 is equipped with five torpedoes and the quiet operation of its fuel cell system further allows the acoustic signature of the submarine to be kept at a minimum. At the time, a Fincantieri spokeswoman estimated it would take roughly four years to make the first submarine of this category.

Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo in Milan contributed to this report.

Jaroslaw Adamowski is the Poland correspondent for Defense News.

波兰华沙——波兰国防部官员已向六个国家发出信息征询书，征集波兰“虎鲸”（Orca）潜艇项目的设计方案。总理唐纳德·图斯克设定的年底最后期限即将到来，届时将选出最终的中标方案。

过去几个月，波兰国防部代表团先后访问了法国、德国、意大利、西班牙和瑞典，并与韩国官员会面，讨论韩国的报价以及与波兰国防工业在潜在采购方面开展合作的意愿。

由于波兰海军目前仅依赖一艘老旧的苏联设计的基洛级潜艇“奥泽尔”号（ORP Orzel），因此此次采购计划显得尤为紧迫。华沙方面计划为新潜艇配备巡航导弹，以增强波兰在波罗的海的威慑能力。

在9月17日波兰政府的一次会议上，图斯克表示，计划中的合同将在政府层面签署，这意味着可以期待与提供合同的国家建立更高层次的政治伙伴关系。

“我们有很多潜艇可供选择。考虑到我们在安全方面的投资规模，这将是一个政府间协商的决定，”总理说。

在同一次会议上，内阁通过了一项决议，要求政府在 2025 年底之前从国外选出该计划的“最终合作伙伴”。

包括法国海军集团、意大利芬坎蒂尼集团、瑞典萨博集团和英国巴布科克国际集团在内的多家欧洲公司，有意向交付三到四艘潜艇，并已签署协议以加强与波兰国有国防集团PGZ的合作。

选定的外国供应商将被要求与波兰集团的子公司 PGZ 海军造船厂合作进行采购。

该控股公司在波兰国防工业中的核心地位，使其成为竞标波兰历史上规模最大的海军项目的外国企业的理想合作伙伴。在近期于格但斯克举行的2025年10月波罗的海国际航空航天展览会（Baltexpo）上，西班牙纳凡蒂亚公司成为最新一家与波兰石油天然气集团公司（PGZ）签署协议，推进其子项目竞标的企业。

该协议的目的是共同探索波兰市场上的海军合作机会，“特别是与潜艇采购计划相关的合作”，但据纳凡蒂亚公司称，该公司正在推销其 S-80 级潜艇，同时也在探索海军的其他采购项目。

声明称：“这份意向书还包括对PGZ集团旗下设施作为工业合作伙伴参与的评估。”

波兰国防部发言人去年五月告诉《防务新闻》，其专家对德国、意大利和瑞典的报价给予了最高分。发言人还表示，虽然这三份报价得分最高，但其余三份报价并未被排除在外。

唯一一家参与波兰分包合同竞标的非欧洲供应商是韩国的韩华海洋公司，该公司也与PGZ有持续的合作关系。

“我们已向波兰准备了一份工业合作方案，其中包括技术转让，并与PGZ和Nauta造船厂合作，在波兰建立100%本地化的独立维护、修理和运营能力，”韩华海洋海军舰艇海外业务团队经理Hyunrok Park告诉《防务新闻》。

朴正熙表示，迄今为止，韩国海军已接收了三艘KSS-III级潜艇，另有三艘正在建造中。

韩华海洋希望将波兰作为其 KSS-III 级潜艇的首个出口市场，同时还将目光投向加拿大和沙特阿拉伯等其他国家。

加拿大已将德国蒂森克虏伯海洋系统公司（该公司也在竞标“虎鲸”级潜艇项目）和韩华海洋公司列为该国采购至多 12 艘常规动力潜艇项目的两家潜在供应商。

沙特阿拉伯多年来一直在寻求建造新的中小型潜艇。鉴于两国之间业已存在的密切关系，报道经常将芬坎蒂尼集团列为主要竞争者之一。

在 2023 年 IDEX 防务展上，这家意大利制造商展示了其 S800 轻型潜艇，该潜艇专为在浅水区进行隐蔽行动而设计。该公司在接受《防务新闻》采访时表示，该潜艇已引起海湾地区几家客户的兴趣。

S800配备五枚鱼雷，其燃料电池系统的静音运行进一步降低了潜艇的声学特征。当时，芬坎蒂尼集团的一位发言人估计，建造该级别的首艘潜艇大约需要四年时间。

米兰的伊丽莎白·戈塞林-马洛对本报道亦有贡献。

Jaroslaw Adamowski 是《防务新闻》驻波兰记者。