The contract was signed at Naval Base Świnoujście, home of the 8th Coastal Defense Flotilla. The parties to the contract are the State Treasury – the Armaments Agency and the Consortium composed of: Stocznia Remontowa Shipbuilding S.A. together with PGZ Stocznia Wojenna Sp. z o.o. and the Research and Development Center of Centrum Techniki Morskiej S.A.
The contract value was announced as “less than PLN 2.5 billion gross” ($564 million USD) with vessels set to be delivered in 2026 and 2027.
Three Kormoran II type MCM vessels are already in service with the Polish Navy. They were built by local shipbuilder Remontowa Shipbuilding. The first ship-in-class, ORP Kormoran, was commissioned in November 2017. The contract for the construction of two follow-on units, ORP Albatros and ORP Mewa, was signed at the end of December 2017. ORP Albatros was launched in October 2019 and is currently undergoing military handover tests, while ORP Mewa was launched in December 2020 and is currently at the stage of the contractor’s sea trials. ORP Albatros is set to join the 8th Coastal Defense Flotilla in August while ORP Mewa is expected to be handed over in November.
Kormoran II (also known as project 258) is a class of MCM Vessels of the Polish Navy, designed and built locally. They are 58.5 m long and 10.3 m wide. The draft is 2.7 meters and the displacement is 830 tons. The hull is made of non-magnetic steel. Their main missions include the search, classification, identification and neutralization of sea mines. They are fitted with Kelvin Hughes SharpEye radar and inertial navigation systems (INS) by iXblue.