Poland picks Saab’s A26 submarine design, contract eyed by year’s end

WARSAW, Poland — The Polish Ministry of National Defence has selected the country’s new submarine, opting for the A26 Blekinge, a design offered by Sweden’s Saab.

The decision followed an intense competition between six European and Asian nations. Poland aims to procure three submarines for the country’s Navy, with plans to have a contract signed by the end of this year.

“This is a great day for the security of the Polish state, a great day for the Polish Navy. We are finalizing our promise, fulfilling what we have declared. Poland will acquire three submarines under the Orka program,” Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, the country’s deputy prime minister and defense minister, said at a Nov. 26 press conference.

“This decision builds a new security architecture in the Baltic Sea,” he added.

Kosiniak-Kamysz said he wants to have an agreement with the Swedish government signed “in the coming weeks.”

In the past months, delegations from the Polish ministry visited Sweden, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, and also met with South Korean officials to discuss the countries’ sub offers. A key factor that weighed on the final recommendation of the ministry’s program team was the respective industries’ readiness to cooperate with Polish defense companies on the procurement.

The new subs are designed to strengthen Poland’s deterrence capacities in the Baltic Sea, as the country is intensifying naval modernization efforts in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine. The Polish government plans to equip the three subs with cruise missiles.

The deputy prime minister said the government aims to have the first of the three submarines delivered to the Polish Navy in 2030.

Before the three A26s enter service, Warsaw aims to procure a ‘gap filler’ boat for the Polish Navy which will be used to train the country’s sailors. That submarine is to be made available to the nation’s naval forces in 2027.

The government’s decision to select a European Union member state as its partner for the sub procurement is in line with plans to use loans from the EU’s SAFE program . Brussels has allocated to Warsaw €43.7 billion ($50.7 billion) in loans for arms purchases under the scheme.

A Polish think tank analyst told Defense News that, though Poland initially planned to spend around PLN 10 billion ($2.7 billion) on the sub purchase, the forthcoming acquisition “will most likely cost more than this. It is also unclear at this point what will be the scope of the Polish industry’s involvement.”

“We already know the delivery of the A26s to Sweden has been delayed. Taking this into account, the delivery of the first of these subs to Poland in five years’ time is not certain,” the analyst said.

Saab brands the A26 as a vessel enabled with fifth-generation sub capabilities, offering very low acoustic and magnetic signatures which, combined with “Saab’s heritage of Baltic Sea stealth,” would make the A26 “among the world’s hardest-to-detect submarines.”

The acquisition is considered urgent as the Polish Navy operates a single, outdated Soviet-designed submarine, the Kilo-class ORP Orzel.

Under the program’s premises, Saab will be required to cooperate on the procurement with PGZ Naval Shipyard, an offshoot of Poland’s leading state-run defense group.

“We look forward to the coming negotiations with the Armaments Agency in Poland. The Swedish offer, featuring submarines tailored for the Baltic Sea, is the right choice for the polish people. It will significantly enhance the operational capability of the Polish Navy and benefit the Polish economy,” Micael Johansson, the president and CEO of Saab, was quoted in a statement.

With the latest announcement, Poland is set to become the second nation to order the A26 Blekinge for its naval forces, preceded by Sweden.

In October 2025, Saab announced it had received an order from Sweden’s military procurement agency, the Defence Materiel Administration (FMV), for the last phase of the manufacturing and additional scope for material and services for two Blekinge-class subs previously ordered by Stockholm. The order is worth around SEK 9.6 billion ($1 billion), with the vast majority of deliveries scheduled for the years 2026 to 2032, the Swedish company said in a statement.

Jaroslaw Adamowski is the Poland correspondent for Defense News.

波兰华沙——波兰国防部已选定该国的新型潜艇，选择了瑞典萨博公司提供的 A26 Blekinge 设计。

经过六个欧洲和亚洲国家的激烈竞争，波兰最终决定采购三艘潜艇。波兰计划为该国海军采购三艘潜艇，并计划在今年年底前签署合同。

“这对波兰国家安全来说是伟大的一天，对波兰海军来说也是伟大的一天。我们正在兑现承诺，履行我们所宣布的。波兰将根据‘奥尔卡’计划采购三艘潜艇，”波兰副总理兼国防部长瓦迪斯瓦夫·科西尼亚克-卡梅什在11月26日的新闻发布会上表示。

他补充说：“这项决定在波罗的海构建了一种新的安全架构。”

科西尼亚克-卡米什表示，他希望“在未来几周内”与瑞典政府签署协议。

过去几个月，波兰国防部代表团访问了瑞典、法国、德国、意大利和西班牙，并与韩国官员会面，讨论了各国的竞标方案。最终，波兰国防部项目小组采纳了相关企业的合作意愿，这是影响其最终建议的关键因素之一。

这些新型潜艇旨在加强波兰在波罗的海的威慑能力，因为在俄罗斯入侵邻国乌克兰之后，波兰正在加紧海军现代化建设。波兰政府计划为这三艘潜艇配备巡航导弹。

副总理表示，政府的目标是在 2030 年向波兰海军交付三艘潜艇中的第一艘。

在三艘A26潜艇正式服役之前，华沙计划为波兰海军采购一艘“填补空缺”的潜艇，用于训练该国水兵。这艘潜艇将于2027年交付波兰海军使用。

政府选择欧盟成员国作为其分包采购合作伙伴的决定，符合其利用欧盟“安全援助框架”（SAFE）计划贷款的计划。布鲁塞尔已根据该计划向华沙拨款437亿欧元（507亿美元）用于武器采购。

一位波兰智库分析师告诉《防务新闻》，尽管波兰最初计划花费约100亿兹罗提（27亿美元）购买这艘潜艇，但即将进行的采购“很可能花费更多。目前还不清楚波兰工业界将参与到何种程度。”

“我们已经知道A26型潜艇交付瑞典的计划被推迟了。考虑到这一点，五年后首艘A26型潜艇能否交付波兰尚不确定，”这位分析师表示。

萨博将 A26 定位为具备第五代潜艇能力的舰艇，提供极低的声学和磁学特征，再加上“萨博在波罗的海隐身技术方面的传统”，将使 A26 成为“世界上最难探测的潜艇之一”。

由于波兰海军目前只有一艘老旧的苏联设计的基洛级潜艇 ORP Orzel，因此此次采购被认为是当务之急。

根据该计划的前提，萨博公司将被要求与波兰领先的国有国防集团的子公司 PGZ 海军造船厂合作进行采购。

萨博公司总裁兼首席执行官米凯尔·约翰逊在一份声明中表示：“我们期待与波兰军备局进行即将举行的谈判。瑞典提供的潜艇专为波罗的海海域量身定制，这对波兰人民来说是正确的选择。这将显著提升波兰海军的作战能力，并惠及波兰经济。”

随着最新公告的发布，波兰将成为继瑞典之后第二个为其海军订购 A26 Blekinge 战斗机的国家。

2025年10月，萨博公司宣布已收到瑞典国防物资管理局（FMV）的订单，负责两艘此前由斯德哥尔摩订购的布莱金厄级潜艇的最后阶段制造工作以及额外的材料和服务。这家瑞典公司在一份声明中表示，该订单价值约96亿瑞典克朗（10亿美元），绝大部分交付计划于2026年至2032年间进行。

Jaroslaw Adamowski 是《防务新闻》驻波兰记者。