Polish Navy - Status - 1992
In 1992 Poland had two principal surface combatants. The destroyer Warszawa, in the Soviet Kotlin class, was designed in the 1950s and transferred to Poland from the Soviet navy in 1970. The Warszawa displaces 2,850 tons (3,600 with a full load), is 127.5 meters long, has a top speed of thirty-six knots, and carries the following armaments: two twin SA-N-1 Goa surface-to-air missile launchers with twenty missiles each; four SS-N-2C Styx surface-to-surface missile launchers; two antisubmarine rocket launchers; five 533mm torpedo tubes, twin 130mm guns; four 45mm guns; and eight 30mm guns. The frigate Kaszub features two antisubmarine rocket launchers, four 533mm torpedo tubes, and a 76mm gun. The Kaszub, manufactured in cooperation with East Germany, was completed by the Poles after being left incomplete when German reunification occurred.
The small guided-missile ship HUTNIK was commissioned in March 1984. A sister ship of the same type bears the name GORNIK (in service since 28 December 1983). The main armament of the HUTNIK consisted of two twin-rail launchers for surface target missiles installed on each side. Artillery weapons include a fully automatic 76mm universal gun on the bow and two 6-barreled 30mm guns on the aft superstructures. Of the crew, seven teams have already been awarded the title "socialist service collective" on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the People's Republicof Poland.
The twenty patrol and coastal combatants active in 1992 included missile corvettes, missile craft, and patrol boats. Four Gornik-type (Soviet Tarantul I) corvettes feature two twin SS-N- 2C Styx surface-to-surface missile launchers. Designed in the Soviet Union in the late 1970s, the corvettes were among the most modern elements of the Polish navy. Displacement is 580 tons with a full load; length is fifty-six meters, maximum speed thirty-six knots. Eight Soviet Osa-1 fast patrol craft have four SS-N-2A surface-to-surface missile launchers. Full-load displacement is 210 tons; length is thirty-nine meters, maximum speed thirty-five knots. The Osa class, developed by the Soviet Union in the early 1960s, was considered outmoded by 1990. Poland's eight Obluze large inshore patrol craft were built domestically at the Oksywie Shipyard in Gdynia using a German design of the early 1960s.
The Polish navy had no specifically designed minelaying ships in 1992, but its Lublin-type landing ships, its submarines, and its Krogulec-type minesweepers can perform this function. Minesweeping ships totalled twenty-four, in three classes. The eight Krogulec coastal minesweepers were built in the 1960s at the Gdynia Shipyard; some vessels in this class had already been taken out of service by 1991. Notec inshore minesweepers, a newer design featuring fiberglass hulls, were still being built in Poland in 1992; fourteen were operational that year. Two Leniwka inshore minesweepers complete Poland's mine countermeasure capability.
The mine countermeasures vessel GOPLO is a product of the defense industry of Poland, in which the latest findings for assuring a reliable defense against mines have been considered. The training ship GRYF, a sister ship of the training ship WILHELM PIECK of the People's Navy, was built in 1976 by the Polish North Shipyard inGdansk. This ship type has a displacement of 1,750 tons and a length/width/draft of 72/12/4 m. These ships are armed with 2 X 30mm double mounts. The name GRYF preserves the memory of the brave crew of the formerPolish minelayer of the same name which was sunk by fascist dive bombersin the harbor of Hel on 3 September 1939, at the beginning of the attack by Hitler Germany on Poland. The training ship GRYF visited Rostock in1979 already, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the GDR's existence. Since then, training cruises brought the ship and her crew to the Arctic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, with port calls at Murmansk, Sevastopol, 'Split, Tripoli, and Benghazi.
Six amphibious landing craft were in service in 1992. All had been built in Poland; the Polnocny was a Soviet design. Five Lublin-type craft have a capacity of 130 troops and eight tanks, and the single Polnocny craft could transport 180 troops and six tanks. The Lublins, introduced in 1989, were the last major upgrade of the Polish amphibious capability under the Warsaw Pact. The Polnocny was used as a command ship in 1992. Three Deba-type utility landing craft are used, but not for amphibious operations. Ten craft serve in support of naval operations. These include two intelligence collection vessels, four support tankers, two survey ships, and two training ships.
The one naval aviation division received special attention because its role in coastal reconnaissance, patrol, and search-and-rescue was considered an important element of the new national defense doctrine. In 1992 this division included 2,300 personnel, thirty-eight MiG-21 fighters, and four armed helicopters. Although the MiG-21 was considered inappropriate for action over the sea, in 1992 experts had little hope for modernization of the naval air fighter capability. The division's one search-and-rescue liaison squadron has three W-3 Sokol, three Mi-8, and nine Mi-2 helicopters, two AN-2 single-engine and two AN-28 two-engine transport planes, and four TS-11 jet trainers. In 1991 Poland ordered three W-3RM Anakonda helicopters, improved versions of the Soviet Sokol; one was delivered in 1992.
All Poland's MiG-15 reconnaissance aircraft were withdrawn as obsolete in 1992; no replacement aircraft were available at that time. In 1992 the special naval air regiment included twelve Polish-built TS-11s and ten AN-2s; several of the former were revised TS-11Rs with upgraded radar and navigation systems. Another naval air regiment, designated for antisubmarine warfare and search-and-rescue, had eight Mi-2, one Mi-8, and fifteen Mi14 helicopters. The coastal defense forces included 4,200 personnel manning six artillery batteries with M-1937 guns (152mm) and three surface-to-surface missile batteries with SS-C- 2B launchers.
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