The Polish MoD has selected Thales to provide the main combat system for the future patrol vessel ORP Slazak, as the warship edges ever closer to being finished, having been under construction for more than a decade.
She was originally laid down at the Gdynia Naval shipyard in 2001 as the first of seven Gawron class corvettes. However, the programme encountered a series of planning delays and funding shortfalls during the economic downturn. When the project was eventually cancelled in 2012 only one hull, minus equipment, had been constructed.
In late 2013 a change in strategy, with a renewed requirement for a large patrol vessel that could participate in NATO expeditionary missions, saved the US$100 million hull from the scrapyard. A new contract was subsequently awarded to complete the existing hull as an Offshore Patrol Vessel for an in-servicedate of 2016.
