Named after the cosmopolitan capital of South Australia, the Adelaide class frigates signal “a major upgrade for Poland,” said Michal Jach of the Polish National Defense Committee.
Warsaw expects each warship to cost approximately $700 million, Jach added.
Poland also plans to decide where it will source three new submarines by the end of 2017, Defense News reports. The country is entertaining bids from French, Swedish and German contractors.
The new subs likely won’t arrive until 2023, Jach told a local Polish news outlet.
Poland is currently in the midst of a massive military expansion, to the tune of $14.5 billion, even as unprecedented levels of NATO forces land in Poland to conduct joint military drills.
At a recent news conference, Lt. Col. Steve Gventer exclaimed that the presence of at least 3,500 US Army soldiers in Poland is not merely for training purposes. “This is a mission, not a cycle of training events,” Gventer told reporters.
The US claims that a “greater force,” in the form of more troops, is needed in Europe to deter the “Russian threat.”
“I need armored and mechanized brigades,” Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti told the House Armed Services committee on Tuesday.
Moscow maintains it doesn’t pose any threat to Eastern Europe.
