The Swordfish frigates are to serve as the advanced naval arm of the Polish air defense. They are an ideal complement to land-based air defense systems, which will not be able to fully protect our energy installations due to their quantity. In addition, thanks to advanced sonar systems, they will be able to simultaneously patrol and protect underwater energy installations – writes Bartosz Siemieniuk, contributor to BiznesAlert.pl, in the context of the Italian ship’s stay in the Baltic.
Assistance from Italy
What do the Polish energy industry, and the Polish Navy have in common, and why are these two seemingly unrelated entities important to each other? The decision to modernize our energy sector and fleet was taken at a similar time. The Navy and the Polish energy system have the potential to give each other development incentives by giving our fleet a full spectrum of tasks of a strategic nature. On the other hand, our energy infrastructure needs adequate protection so that an incident like the sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines involving Polish critical infrastructure is not repeated.
Despite the energy transition and diversification of supply sources, Poland remains dependent on imports of energy raw materials. Critical infrastructure is concentrated on the coast, which facilitates diversionary, terrorist and armed operations against it and makes the country’s energy sector vulnerable. The distance between the LNG terminal in Świnoujście and the Goleniów compressor station serving the Baltic Pipe gas pipeline is only 77 km. Going further, there are the Tricity ports handling coal and oil supplies and the storage infrastructure they need is concentrated within a radius of 40 km.
Due to many years of neglect the state of the Polish Navy has reached a critical point, especially when it comes to submarines. However, the tasks of the Navy over time began to evolve to meet the current threats to the security of the state. Lacking its own capabilities, Poland asked Italy for help in protecting the Polish sky. For this purpose, a Caio Duilio-type missile destroyer was assigned for a six-month mission. It is a powerful ship with a displacement of more than 7,000 tons and can protect an area at a range of 120 km thanks to Aster-30 missiles.
The Kaliningrad Region, which lies next door, is saturated with Kalibr cruise missile systems (installed on Baltic Fleet ships), Bastion anti-ship missiles and Iskander ballistic missiles. One massive missile attack is enough to disable Poland’s critical infrastructure in the Baltic. Russian military doctrine makes it clear that the key is to destroy the enemy’s critical infrastructure. The best example of this, are the massive missile attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure supported by the naval forces, ground-based missile systems and strategic bombers. The purpose of these attacks, which can be called terrorist with full responsibility, was to suppress the Ukrainian population, taking away its access to raw materials before winter. Similar actions against Poland can be considered likely in the indefinite future.
Poland needs its own ships
The best preventive measure against such actions is extensive and multi-layered air defense systems, but there are two problems here. First, Poland’s air defense, which is undergoing modernization, must be dispersed throughout the country. The purchase of air defence systems is one of the most expensive elements of the modernization program of the Polish Armed Forces. Poland will spend approx. PLN 100 billion. This quantity, which allows shooting down Russian Iskander ballistic missiles, is an absolute minimum for the defense of Polish airspace. Unfortunately, the systems need to be dispersed across the country to protect other strategic locations, such as airports or large urban agglomerations with Warsaw on top of the list.
Poland is pursuing a program to build multi-role frigates with high air defense capabilities called the Swordfish. The main effectors intended for the implementation of operational activities will be the British CAMM missiles. It’s the same missiles as the ones that will be used for short-range onshore systems as part of the Narew project. The Swordfish Frigates are to serve as the extended maritime arm of the Polish air defense. They are an ideal complement to land-based air defense systems, which will not be able to fully protect our energy installations due to their quantity. In addition, thanks to advanced sonar systems, they will be able to simultaneously patrol and protect underwater power installations whose vulnerability to sabotage has been exposed during the Nord Stream 1 and 2 incident.
In combination with the allied fleets in the Baltic Sea, primarily the German and Danish fleets, and in the future perhaps the Swedish and Finnish fleets, which also have plans to expand their maritime capabilities, the Polish project will create a counterweight to the Russian Baltic Fleet and missile systems located in Kaliningrad.
The Swordfish frigates are not the only card in the hands of our Navy. The Kormoran II mine destroyers represent the main anti-mine potential in the Baltic Sea, being the most modern of its kind in the world. These units also have surveillance and seabed research capabilities, having wired, remote ROV drones and Głuptak drones. They are fully capable of monitoring installations such as the Baltic Pipe and offshore wind farms, and are able to react in case of danger.
However, similar observation activities with the help of special sonars can be carried out by specialized maritime patrol aircraft, such as the P-8 Poseidon. The problem, however, is that naval aviation does not have the ability to immediately counteract if sabotage attempts are detected under the surface of the sea. In such situations, every moment counts, and the systems that Polish ships are equipped have the capability to react adequately at the right time. Another advantage of marine surveillance systems over aerial ones is their cost, which is incomparably higher in the case of aircraft operations. However, this does not preclude their cooperation and may even increase the effectiveness of observation systems by complementing each other’s capabilities. This forces the potential aggressor to increase the cost of the potential operation to a degree that at some point will no longer be acceptable in the cost-effect relationship.
The Polish Navy and the Polish energy system can give each other mutual incentives for development. One side ensures security while the other pursues specific tasks at the strategic level. Ironically, over the years, no modernisation efforts have been carried out with regard to either of these entities, leading to their operational failures. The modernization of these sectors, and indeed the revolution in their structures, began in both cases at a similar time.
The decision on the actual modernization of the Navy was made, among other things, under the pressure of the actions of the Russian Federation in Ukraine. The Poles have come to the conclusion that there is no more time for further debates, that they need real action. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill once said, „Never let a good crisis go to waste.” This maxim has been put into practice in this case. The costs that will have to be borne in this case in the short term seem huge, but the investments will ensure long-term peace.
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