Poland launched “Albatros” Minehunter

According to the statement of the Ministry of Defence of Poland, the Polish Navy’s second Kormoran II-class minehunter was launched in a ceremony at Remontowa Shipbuilding.

The keel of the ORP “Mewa” twin unit was laid at the Remontowa Shipbuilding shipyard in Gdańsk. “Albatros” and “Mewa” are being built under a contract that was signed at the end of December 2017.

Kormoran-class minehunters are intended for joint operations conducted by the Polish Navy in the Baltic, the North Sea and other areas as part of NATO’s joint maritime operations.

The main tasks of such ships are the search, classification and identification of sea mines, their destruction; leading ships through mine threat areas, mine protection, recognition of fairways, remote control of self-propelled surface mine platforms, searching for and combating diversion forces and means in the areas of ports and anchorages, participation in rescue operations.

The crew consists of 45 people. The main weapon of the prototype Kormoran is unmanned aerial vehicles for mine combat. The first ship of this series was armed with a 23 mm cannon, three large-calibre 12.7 mm machine guns and three Grom anti-aircraft missile launchers.

Maritime Business World