Poland Christens ORP Wicher and Floats the First Miecznik Frigate Off a Submerged Barge — Service Entry 2029
Gdynia, 13 August 2026
Key points
- ORP Wicher, first of Poland's three Miecznik frigates, was christened at PGZ Stocznia Wojenna's southern quay on 12 August with President Karol Nawrocki and Prime Minister Donald Tusk present; godmother Agata Ziemiańska, wife of the Inspector of the Navy
- On 13 August the hull floated for the first time in the Gulf of Gdańsk: the semi-submersible barge Boabarge 33 was ballasted down in about 26 metres of water and the hull lifted free at roughly 3.8 metres' draught, then was pushed back to the yard by tugs — no propulsion is installed
- The hull left the construction hall on self-propelled modular transporters (278 axles, about 1,250 tonnes) from 9 August, with barge loading completed by 12 August; PGZ SW calls it the first operation of its kind in Polish shipbuilding history
- Design: Babcock's Arrowhead 140, adapted to Polish requirements and built by the PGZ-Miecznik consortium; entry into service stated as 2029, with Burza and Huragan to follow — Burza's sections are already in the hall
- The three ships replace the Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates Gen. K. Pułaski and Gen. T. Kościuszko in air-defence, surface-strike and escort roles
Poland's first Miecznik-programme frigate was named Wicher on 12 August and floated for the first time the next day, lifted off a submerged barge in the Gulf of Gdańsk and pushed back into PGZ Stocznia Wojenna for outfitting.
The christening was the state occasion; the float-off was the engineering. Nawrocki called the programme a milestone and said he would see it through to "its happy end"; Tusk named Burza, Huragan and Wicher as signs of Polish strength and "Baltic calm". The name revives the destroyer that defended the coast in September 1939. Wicher's designated commanding officer is Commander Grzegorz Galikowski, formerly of the corvette ORP Kaszub.
What was demonstrated on 13 August is that the yard can assemble a 140-metre combatant, move it, and get it afloat without a dry dock — Gdynia's method was a barge, not a slipway. What was not demonstrated is anything a frigate does: the propulsion is not fitted, the combat system is not integrated, and the ship returns to the quay for the long half of the build. The defence ministry's date for service entry is 2029; the second and third ships follow into the early 2030s.
Poland has made the hull visible three years before the capability exists, and the schedule is the claim to test. Huragan's steel was cut in the spring (Großwald recorded it), so all three hulls are now in work in one yard that has never delivered a ship of this class; the Arrowhead 140 lineage — the Royal Navy's Type 31 — has itself run late at Rosyth. Großwald carried the christening in Signal No. 122. The Baltic posture these frigates are meant to serve — escorted reinforcement sealifts, air-defence cover for the Gulf of Gdańsk — will largely be in place before they are; the observable is not the launch but the first sea trial under own power, and whether it lands in 2028.
