Błaszczak: Fregaty Swordfish are in line with the maritime safety strategy

The construction of the frigate of the Sword will serve as a deterrent, it is consistent with the maritime security strategy developed by the presidential centre," said defence minister Mariusz Błaszczak on Tuesday.

"These are ships to deter a possible aggressor. How can you scare away an aggressor? Through multi-tasking and high firepower," said the head of the MON in TVP Info, who had approved the request of the Armed Forces Inspectorate for the acquisition of these units the day before.

Again assuredthat he would "supervise this process" so that the performers did not overestimate the price, and the army required, "so that for a good price, in the shortest time possible Polish Navy she had such ships."

"Why are they larger units, why are they frigates? Also because this is in line with the strategic concept of maritime security of the Republic of Poland, developed for the needs of President Andrzej Duda, created by the National Security Office," he said.

"This concept is coherent, this concept guarantees that Polish Navy will be equipped with modern and genuinely dissuasive weapons," he added. Earlier plans were to build coastal defense ships as corvettes.

As Błaszczak said, "the firepower of one frigate will be similar to the firepower of the Marine Rocket Unit" – composed of two divisions of the coastal unit.

Minister repeatsthat ships are to be built in national shipyards, not only in the Polish Armed Forces Group, but also in private. "The success was the cooperation of Polish private shipyards with PGZ connected with the construction of mine destroyers" - he recalled, referring to the Kormoran II project, the first of which is in service, two more are to enter the line. "Of course, the scale of the challenge in the form of building a frigate is much larger and poses greater demands and expectations, but I am calm that it will come to this," he said.

According to the information of the MON presented on Tuesday by the Parliamentary Defence Commission of the programme ships The swordsmen are to be handed over to the Navy by 2033.

Source: PAP