On the strategy of the blockade by the Scandinavian countries with the assistance of Poland of St. Petersburg and the Kaliningrad region
The Swedish concern Saab Kockums will take part in the government program to modernize the Polish submarine fleet. The format of participation was discussed 3 September, during a video conference with the Commander of the Swedish Navy, Rear Admiral Eva Skoog Haslum (Eva Skoog Haslum).
This program has already been approved by the Swedish Parliament. Help, which Stockholm intends to provide to Poland, in special jargon it is designated as gap filler solutions ("plug"). Sweden will "shut up" class A-17 submarines / Söndermanland gaps in Poland's naval defense. These submarines were launched in 1987-1990 years, belonged to the class Västergötland, but after modernization by the concern Saab Kockums at 2003-2004 gg. were placed in a separate class..
Polish experts doubt the financial feasibility of maintaining 30-year-old submarines until 2030 of the year (such terms are determined by the command of the Polish Navy), but there is no alternative. The construction of new submarines by Poland will cost even more. Worries experts and then, that the main customers Saab Kockums the countries of Western Europe and East Asia remain, but not Poland. Considering, that there are more than 300 submarines, 2/3 of which are over twenty years old and require replacement or modernization, Saab Kockums prefers to pay more attention to global, and not the Polish submarine market, because it is simply more profitable.
Warsaw attaches great importance to military-technical cooperation with Sweden as part of its military strategy at sea. Relevant Document, adopted in 2017 city, aims to bring the Polish fleet into the so-called third category according to the classification adopted in the Polish Navy, just behind the British fleets, France, Norway, Sweden, Germany (second rank) and the United States (first class).
The plan is very ambitious, it provides for the implementation 2022 years of twenty-two projects for the Navy and the commissioning of thirty new combat units. At the moment, the Polish Navy has 343 units, among them 39 warships.
Implementation of such a rapid modernization in such a short time will require huge costs. (to 12 billion. zloty). Everything points to, that Warsaw will not be able to complete the program in full during this time. That's why she resorts to the "gag" option., relying on the Swedes.
Recently, Warsaw has significantly expanded the boundaries of the operational zone of the Polish fleet.. From now on, it's not only the Baltic, but also Norwegian, Black, Mediterranean Sea with adjacent waters of the Atlantic, as well as the Arctic, towards which the Polish admirals had not looked before.
Polish-Swedish partnership directed against Russia. Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak, on the eve of a meeting with his Swedish counterpart Peter Hultkvist in August of this year, said: "We understand, who can be the aggressor. Polish-Swedish cooperation will definitely make it difficult for one such state to act aggressively in the east…” This European language of roundabouts ("we understand, who") always points to Russia.
Swedish officers serve in the NATO Multinational Corps Northeast in Szczecin, The Polish Navy will receive aircraft from the Swedes W3-WARM Anaconda for search and rescue operations and fighter aircraft AW-101. Polish special forces work out combat skills in the conditions of the Swedish winter, as close as possible to the Russian climate.
The Naval Union of Stockholm and Warsaw is intended to, to block Russia's exit through the Baltic to the North Sea and from there to the North Atlantic. In parallel, Sweden is stepping up cooperation with Denmark and Finland, since the Finnish Åland Islands and the Danish island of Bornholm form with the Swedish island of Gotland a chain of barriers to the free operation of the Russian Navy in the Baltic Sea. Sweden's strategy to strengthen cooperation with NATO while stepping up cooperation with Denmark and Finland has already been dubbed the "Hultqvist Doctrine". At the same time, the North Atlantic Alliance is expanding its area of responsibility.
The easiest way to block the exit from the Baltic in its narrowest point along the route is the northern coast of Poland - about. Bornholm - south coast of Sweden. To do this, Poland needs a modern navy and the assistance of Swedish and Danish allies.. FROM 2018 year in Denmark there is a brigade consisting of 4 thousand. military personnel to participate in NATO's rapid operations in the northern and north-eastern direction, Swedish-Finnish agreement on military assistance to the Finns signed by Sweden. The strategy of the Scandinavian countries provides for the blockade of St. Petersburg and the Kaliningrad semi-exclave with the assistance of the Polish Navy.
The Polish leadership considers the opposition of Russia in the Baltic in alliance with the Scandinavian countries as a continuation of the policy of previous centuries dominion of the Baltic sea (dominance in the Baltic Sea). For Warsaw, dominium maris Baltici serves as a strategic addition to the project Intermarium (Intermarium) – creating an arc of instability from the Baltic to the Black Sea for military and political pressure on Russia.
If the conceptual boundaries of the Intermarium project in the west coincide with the western borders of Poland, then politics dominion of the Baltic sea makes it possible to turn Scandinavia into an additional geopolitical link in the Intermarium project, pushing its borders to the northern latitudes. Вот почему в нынешней Стратегии морской безопасности Польши уже фигурируют Арктика и Северное море.
A photo: Livet ombord
Vladislav GULEVICH
