The crew of the only buoyant submarine in the Polish Navy call for help.
In an anonymous open letter, the sailors warn that the submarine Orzeł (Adler) is “in a deplorable technical condition, and every journey can end with sinking and our death”.
In a recent maneuver there were problems with the surface, with the drive, the sonar, the communication and the armament.
The sailors write: “The fact that the eagle is still swimming can only be described as a miracle.” The 73-meter-long submarine, built in the Soviet Union in 1985, was put back into service five years ago “despite our protests”.
Gerhard Gnauck
Political correspondent for Poland, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania based in Warsaw.
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On Thursday, the Polish army command commented on the allegations: In the past three years, important repair work on the "eagle" had begun and in some cases had already been completed. General Mirosław Różański, head of the Stratpoints Foundation, which deals with security issues, told the FAZ that the "desperate warning from the sailors that the Polish Navy is down" should not be ignored. “The current government has no future concept for the Navy. She is seriously behind in equipping the Navy. ”But when Naval Inspector Mirosław Mordel expressed his concern, he was dismissed.
The government has torpedoed important projects, complains Różański, who was head of the Polish armed forces from 2015 to 2016: “At that time, we were well on the way with the Germans to form a joint command for training in the North and Baltic Seas. We wanted to cooperate with Germany, Norway and the Netherlands on the procurement of new submarines. All of this was overturned under the later defense ministers Macierewicz and Błaszczak. ”It was only in March of this year that Germany and Norway agreed to jointly purchase submarines from the manufacturer ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems.