21st Century
Poland's entrance into the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has greatly changed the structure and role of the Polish Navy. Whereas before, most of Naval High Command was concerned with coastal defense and Baltic Sea Operations, the current mindset is for integration with international naval operations. The focus is on expansion of subsurface naval capabilities, and in the creation of a large submarine force. To facilitate these changes the Republic of Poland has undertaken a number of modernization programs aimed at creating a force capable of power projection around the world. This includes a number of foreign acquisitions, including the acquisition of four Kobben-class submarines from Norway, and two Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates from the United States. Polish Navy has also one submarine of the Kilo class (OrzeĊ). The Naval air arm has also acquired a number of SH-2G Super Seasprite helicopters. Highly appreciated is a special diver commando service Formoza.
The Polish Navy has taken part in numerous joint force operations. In 1999 the naval base at Gdynia became the home base of all NATO submarine forces in the Baltic, codenamed "Cooperative Poseidon". That same year joint US-Polish submarine training manoeuvres codenamed "Baltic Porpoise" for the first time utilized the port in a multinational military nature.
Read more about this topic: Polish Navy
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