Shipbucket

@Heuhen
Only Norwegian ships that ended up in the Polish Navy I know of, are Kobben-class (U207) submarines - built 1964-1967, transferred to Poland in 2003, so they are almost 50 years old. Also, I've read that apparently there are some concerns about the state of their hulls (usually mentioned cause is sandblasting during refits that over time strained the steel, but I'm not a specialist, so can't tell any details), and any life-extension (even if we assume that it would be financially viable) is simply technically impossible for the safety reasons, so they are due to retire by 2016.

Yes they are to old. but even Norwegian Naval officers says thees old ladies are better subs than the Ula-class of today.


I think Poland had some former Norwegian PT-boats to of the former Storm class if I can remember correct. And they had some interest in on of the submarine support ship we have here in Norway... If they haven't bought it already (I haven't checked it, but I know it was sold to an Navy... but witch...)

Several Storm-class PT's ended up in the navies of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, but not of Poland. Besides, they are of similar age as Kobbens.
I've never heard about that submarine support ship, but we did bought recently NSM missiles for coastal defence unit.

As a Norwegian submariner, I can say that the updated KOBBEN were on par with ULA when they were transferred in 2003, ten years ago. As for their state now, I doubt it since we've sunk (no pun intended) a lot of money into upgrading the ULA class further. They're still good boats, but as eswube says, they're getting to be 50 years old and quite long in the tooth. We abused those boats quite badly over their career, and I think the Poles have done similar things with them...

HORTEN is as of yet still in Norwegian hands as far as I know. The STORM class is mostly phased out from the Baltic states as well. I think Latvia still operates one. The VIDAR class are still going strong.

Indeed, Kobbens were modernized before transfer and served Polish Navy very well (way much better than our other major second-hand purchase: two FFG-7 frigates dubbed "lots of rust for lots of money"), including patrols as far as Mediterranean (as part of operation Active Endeavour), but their service life is simply reaching end.