Poland Launches ORP Wicher, First of Three Miecznik Frigates Replacing Its US-Built Ships

Poland launched its first Miecznik-class frigate, ORP Wicher, at the PGZ Stocznia Wojenna shipyard in Gdynia on 13 August 2026, a day after the ship was christened in a ceremony attended by President Karol Nawrocki and Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The 138-meter hull was lowered into the Bay of Gdansk using a semi-submersible barge, a method dictated by the size of the ship relative to the yard's existing infrastructure.

Wicher is the lead ship of a three-vessel program worth 15 billion zloty, about $4 billion, and the largest surface-combatant order Poland has placed since the end of the Cold War. Her sisters ORP Burza and ORP Huragan are to follow: Burza is due to launch in 2027 and commission in 2030, while Huragan is to have her keel laid late this year, launch in 2028 and enter service in 2031. Wicher herself is scheduled for commissioning in 2029, after roughly three years of fitting out and trials.

The Miecznik design is a Polish adaptation of Babcock International's Arrowhead 140, the parent design of the Royal Navy's Type 31 frigates and, further back, of the Danish Iver Huitfeldt class. At a maximum displacement of about 7,700 tons the Polish version is heavier and more heavily armed than the British ships. The weapons fit is built around a 32-cell Mk 41 vertical launching system quad-packed with MBDA CAMM surface-to-air missiles, for a theoretical maximum of 128 rounds, plus eight Kongsberg Naval Strike Missiles with space reserved for eight more, a Leonardo 76 mm Strales gun, two 35 mm remote weapon stations and two dual-tube MU90 lightweight torpedo launchers. Sensors and effectors are tied together by Thales' TACTICOS combat management system, with hull-mounted and towed-array sonar for anti-submarine work.

Four CODAD diesels drive two shafts for a maximum speed of 28 knots and a range of roughly 8,000 nautical miles. The core crew is about 120, with accommodation for some 60 additional personnel.

The program answers a gap that has widened for two decades. The Polish Navy fields 46 hulls in GlobalMilitary.net's inventory, of which only two are frigates: the Oliver Hazard Perry-class ORP General Kazimierz Pulaski and ORP General Tadeusz Kosciuszko, transferred second-hand from the United States in 2000 and 2002 and both now more than four decades old. Mine countermeasures dominate the rest of the fleet with 26 units, including the domestically built Kormoran II minehunters, alongside two corvettes and a single Kilo-class submarine, ORP Orzel. Poland ranks 22nd in the global military power ranking, a position carried far more by its army and air force than by its fleet.

Miecznik is not the only line of that rebuild. Warsaw selected Sweden's Saab A26 design for the Orka submarine program in November 2025, with three boats planned and a Swedish gap-filler boat to bridge the wait, and further Kormoran II hulls are on order. The three frigates are intended to give Poland a credible air-defense and anti-submarine contribution to NATO's Baltic posture, which the alliance has steadily reinforced since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Program completion is targeted for the end of 2031.