WARSAW, Poland — Defense officials have sent requests for information to six countries for submarine designs for the Polish Orka (Orca) submarine program, as Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s end-of-year deadline nears for picking a winning proposal.
Over the past months, delegations from the Polish ministry have visited France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden, and also met with South Korean officials to discuss their offers and readiness to cooperate with Poland’s defense industry on the potential procurement.
The planned acquisition is deemed urgent here as the Polish Navy relies on a single, outdated Soviet-designed submarine, the Kilo-class ORP Orzel. The new subs are to bolster Poland’s deterrence capacities in the Baltic Sea, as Warsaw plans to equip them with cruise missiles.
During a Sept. 17 session of the Polish government, Tusk said the planned contract is to be signed at government level, meaning a greater level of political partnership with the offering nation can be expected.
“We have plenty [of submarines] to choose from. This will be a decision, given the scale of the investment in our security, that we will make government-to-government,” the prime minister said.
During the same session, the cabinet adapted a resolution that requires the government to select the program’s “final partner” from abroad until the end of 2025.
A number of European companies that are interested in delivering between three and four subs, including France’s Naval Group, Italy’s Fincantieri, Swedish Saab, and U.K. business Babcock International, have signed deals to enhance cooperation with Polish state-run defense group PGZ.
The selected foreign supplier will be required to collaborate on the procurement with the Polish group’s subsidiary, PGZ Naval Shipyard.
The holding’s central role in the nation’s defense industry makes it an attractive partner for foreign players competing for what could be the largest naval program in Poland’s history. During the recently concluded October 2025 Baltexpo industry show in Gdansk, Spain’s Navantia became the latest player to sign an agreement with PGZ to advance its sub offer.
The agreement’s purpose is to jointly explore naval cooperation opportunities in the Polish market, “in particular connected with the submarine acquisition program” but also other procurements for the Navy, according to Navantia which is pitching its S-80-class sub.
“This Letter of Intent also includes the evaluation of the involvement of PGZ group facilities as [an] industrial partner,” the statement said.
A spokesperson for the Polish ministry told Defense News last May its experts assigned the highest scores to the offers placed by Germany, Italy and Sweden. That said, while these three bids received the highest scores, the remaining three offers have not been discarded, according to the spokesperson.
The only non-European supplier bidding for the Polish sub contract, South Korea’s Hanwha Ocean, also has an ongoing collaboration with PGZ.
“We have prepared an industrial cooperation offer to Poland that involves a transfer of technology and cooperation with PGZ and the Nauta shipyard to set up a 100% local, independent maintenance, repair, and operations capacity in Poland,” Hyunrok Park, a manager from Hanwha Ocean’s Naval Ship Overseas Business Team, told Defense News.
Park said that, to date, three KSS-III-class subs have been delivered to the Republic of Korea Navy, with a further three units to be built.
Hanwha Ocean hopes to secure Poland as the first export market for its KSS-III-class sub, all the while setting sights on Canada and Saudi Arabia, among others.
Canada has shortlisted Germany’s thyssenKrupp Marine Systems, which is also bidding for the Orca program, and Hanwha Ocean as the two potential suppliers for the nation’s program to purchase up to 12 conventionally-powered submarines.
Saudi Arabia has been on the prowl for new small-to-medium subs for a number of years. Reports have frequently cited Fincantieri as one of the leading contenders, given the close ties that already exist between the two countries.
At the 2023 IDEX exhibition, the Italian manufacturer displayed its S800 light submarine, designed for covert operations in shallow waters and told Defense News in an interview that it had attracted the interest of several Gulf region customers.
The S800 is equipped with five torpedoes and the quiet operation of its fuel cell system further allows the acoustic signature of the submarine to be kept at a minimum. At the time, a Fincantieri spokeswoman estimated it would take roughly four years to make the first submarine of this category.
Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo in Milan contributed to this report.
Jaroslaw Adamowski is the Poland correspondent for Defense News.