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Posts of candidates for the office of President of the Republic of Poland on the Navy case
Author:Mariusz Dasiewicz
The Shipyard Portal, in the interest of the future, decided to ask questions to candidates for the office of the President of the Republic of Poland concerning the future of such armed forces.
Questions were sent to the following candidates:
- Mr Andrzej Duda,
- Mr Simon Holovnia,
- Ms Margaret Kidawa-Błońska,
- Mr. Władysław Kosiniak-Kamish,
- Mr Robert Biedron,
- Mr Krzysztof Bosak,
- Mr Mirosław Piotrowski,
We publish the answers received so far in our Portal.
Position of candidate Władysław Kosiniak-Kamish
Are you aware of an unprecedented breach in our national maritime security system due to the complete degradation of the Navy that has occurred in recent years?
I agree with the assessment that Polish Navy belongs to some of the most neglected areas of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland. At the same time, I believe that the technical modernization programme of the Navy is a chaos showing the lack of any strategy of the government combining multi-billion-dollar arms contracts with strengthening the Polish shipbuilding industry. Moreover, the actions of the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda, the Head of the Armed Forces, who proposed the purchase of used frigates, would deprive Polish shipyards of participation in a multi-billion-dollar order.
What percentage of your budget for the SZRP Technical Modernisation Programmes should be used to rebuild the Navy?
The Armed Forces Technical Modernisation Plan shall be drawn up on the basis of the needs of the individual functional persons. The scale of expenditure on individual tasks, including those relating to the Navy, should be based on specific tasks rather than the opposite.
However, I believe that less than PLN 900 million, planned in 2020 for the modernization of the Navy, is not enough, especially when even PLN 7 billion can reach foreign companies in the same year.
30 percent of trade is transported by sea. So what is your idea of securing these transports during peace, crisis or war?
The needs of the Navy were included in the Armed Forces Technical Modernization Plan. I assume that the knowledge and experience of Polish commanders is a guarantee that the planned needs take into account tasks involving safety in maritime transport.
Can you indicate what is the cause of the unprecedented collapse of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the associated serious negligence in the area of security of our country?
The current state of the Navy is directly due to the lack of a government, uniform and long-term concept of its technical modernisation, as well as the inability of President Andrzej Duda, who after all determines directions of development of the Armed Forces, which are the basis for the development of the Technical Modernization Plan.
The current plan includes several tasks concerning specific ships, where the procedure of acquisition is carried out for many years, without any government support and pre-planned benefits to the economy. At the same time, the modernisation of the fleet in other countries through international cooperation is completely disregarded. And worse, bridge solutions are proposed, consisting in spending billions of PLN of Polish taxpayer on used foreign ships, without the participation of Polish shipbuilding industry.
Would you support the idea of establishing a National Plan for the reconstruction of the MW of the Republic of Poland, consisting of the obligation to allocate PLN 2.2 billion (equivalent to a percentage of GDP of 0.1%) per year in order to equip the Navy with the necessary ships, such as rocket frigates and submarines, as well as helicopters and aircraft (onboard and sea patrol aircraft) outside the MON budget (as was the case with F-16 aircraft)?
At this stage, it is not possible for the Navy to plan separate projects with fixed expenditures, without accurate knowledge of how heavy the burden for the Polish budget will be for the next years the contracts concluded by the Law and Justice Government with foreign companies. The purchase of F-35 aircraft alone costs PLN 20 billion, and it can be only 30% of the total cost of this project. The last decision of the Minister of National Defence to resign from acquiring the rescue ship "Rescue", most likely stems from budgetary cuts linked to the enormous cost of foreign contracts.
Would you support the restoration of the Naval Command as an independent type of armed force as soon as possible?
System Kierowania i Dowodzenia Siłami Zbrojnymi jest zmieniany od wielu lat. Kolejny etap zmian rozpoczął się wraz z objęciem zwierzchnictwa nad armią przez Prezydenta Andrzeja Dudę. Minęło już ponad 4 lata, ale zmiany w systemie dowodzenia nadal trwają. W tej sytuacji niezbędnym jest uprzednie przeprowadzenie kompleksowego przeglądu dotychczasowych działań Prezydenta Dudy, w tym pod kątem Dowództwa Marynarki Wojennej.
Autor: Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz
