The Polish Ministry of Defence (MOD) has received applications from 15 European companies for participation in a technical dialogue on its planned coastal defence vessels and patrol vessels acquisition programme.
The technical dialogue will enable the collection of information that will prove to be useful for the process of preparing the vessel procurements, Defense News reported, citing a statement from the Polish Ministry of Defence.
Without providing information regarding the companies, the statement noted that the acquisition includes three coastal defence vessels and three patrol vessels with a mine-destroying capability.
However, according to Polska Zbrojna, the companies include six Western European and nine Polish manufacturers.
Non-Polish applicants include Germany's ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, French DCNS, Norwegian Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, Spain's Indra, and Dutch companies, including Thales Nederland and Damen Shipyards.
Polish manufacturers include Remontowa Shipyard, Naval Shipyard Gdynia, Polish Defence Holding, OBR CTM research center, KenBIT, Rolls-Royce Poland, Unitronex Poland, ELSE Technical and Research Service, and Thales Poland.
Unitronex Poland has expressed interest in the procurement of the patrol vessels, while all other companies have shown interest in both tenders.
The coastal defence vessels will be acquired from 2014 to 2026, and procurement of the patrol vessels will take place from 2015 to 2026, as part of the Polish Navy's zloty10 billion (US $3.1 billion) Navy modernisation strategy.
