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Tusk terminates “senseless” warship project

PR dla Zagranicy
Anna Bierzańska 24.02.2012 16:44
Prime Minister Donald Tusk has declared that the government is terminating investment in the construction of state of the art warships.

Polish PM made the announcement on Friday during a joint press conference with Minister of Defence Tomasz Siemoniak.

“Vast amounts of money are still being spent on the Polish military that simply having nothing to do with defence,” Tusk claimed. The prime minister said that “in spite of opposition from the navy” the project would be ended, as it was “senseless” to maintain an enterprise that is is costing 30 million zloty per year (7.2 million euro).

Poland launched the warship project in 2001, during the premiership of Leszek Miller, leader of the Democratic Left Alliance party (SLD).

It was initially planned that Poland would build six so-called Gawron (Rook) Corvettes: small, state of the art warships that would be capable of combating ships and submarines as well as taking part in rescue operations. The cost was initially set at 250 million zloty per vessel (60 million euro), but the project then changed to three vessels at a cost of 1.5 billion zloty each (360 million euro each). However, after over ten years, not one warship has emerged.

“The project will not be continued,” added Defence Minister Tomasz Siemoniak. (nh)

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Photo: Naval Shipyard Gdynia S.A.

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