And finally...
Although the
7 Łużycka Brygada Obrony Wybrzeża (
7 ŁBOW, 7th Lusatian Coastal Defence Brigade) was disbanded in 1995, unit with "coastal defence" in their name did not quite disappeared from the Order of Battle of the Polish land forces. In the 1993
8 Drezdeńska Dywizja Zmechanizowana (
8th Dresden Mechanised Division) headquartered in Koszalin was renamed into
8 Bałtycka Dywizja Obrony Wybrzeża imienia Bartosza Głowackiego (
8th Baltic Coastal Defence Division named after Bartosz Głowacki). It was, however, standard heavy division with one armored and two mechanised brigades.
In the year 2001 the division was also disbanded, and the "coastal defence" name passed on one of it's subordinate brigades (that wasn't disbanded with most of the division) -
7 Pomorska Brygada Zmechanizowana imienia Generała Stanisława Grzmot-Skotnickiego (
7th Pomeranian Mechanised Brigade named after General Stanisław Grzmot-Skotnicki) was renamed
7 Pomorska Brygada Obrony Wybrzeża imienia Generała Stanisława Grzmot-Skotnickiego (
7th Pomeranian Coastal Defence Brigade named after General Stanisław Grzmot-Skotnicki). For the most part it was also a standard heavy brigade, and the only major difference in the unit TO&E was presence of the 122mm MRL batallion (normally a division-level asset). In the recent years, however, it's structure was somewhat "lightened" by removing tank and MRL batallions (while adding third mechanised batallion). Between 2001 and 2004 the unit was subordinated directly to the
1 Korpus Zmechanizowany (
1st Mechanised Corps) headquartered in Bydgoszcz, and after it's disbanding, it was subordinated to
12 Szczecińska Dywizja Zmechanizowana imienia Bolesława Krzywoustego (
12th Szczecin Mechanised Division named after Bolesław III Wrymouth).
Due to reduced needs for the amphibious landing capabilities, Polish Navy in the last two decades did not received any new landing ships. It did, however, acquired single vessel with limited capabilities of that kind. In the 1980s
Stocznia Północna (
Northern Shipyard) in Gdańsk built for the Soviet Navy 18 degaussing ships of the Pr.130 project (NATO code: Bereza, one ship was transferred to Bulgaria). Additional, 19th vessel was about 90% complete when the Soviet Union collapsed. Since the rapidly-shrinking Russian Navy had no need for more such ships, the vessel eventually become property of the shipyard. Initially builder prepared a design of an upgrade to research and degaussing vessel, named Pr.130-I, but no buyers could be found. In the late 1990s Polish Navy become interested in acquiring a logistical support vessel (due to Poland's entry to NATO in 1999). Shipyard offered donating over the Pr.130 vessel to the Navy in exchange for an order to convert it into logistical support ship, designated Pr.890 Małż (alternatively Pr.B-890 or Pr.130Z). Design and rebuilt works progressed quite fast, despite very deep changes to the ship, and on 1 september 2001 new vessel was commissioned to the Polish Navy as ORP Kontradmirał Xawery Czernicki - named after pre-war chief of the logistical services of the Polish Navy, murdered by the Soviet NKVD in 1940 in the Katyn Massacre (It should be noted, that on the hull the name is written in the shorter form: "Kontradmirał X. Czernicki", but formally name contains full given name). New ship was made part of the
2 Dywizjon Okrętów Transportowo-Minowych (
2 DOTM, 2nd Transport-Mine Ships Squadron) of the
8 Flotylla Obrony Wybrzeża (
8th Coastal Defence Flotilla) in Świnoujście. During it's service it participated in operations:
Enduring Freedom (2002),
Iraqi Freedom (2003),
Active Endeavour (2011), and was twice a command ship of the
Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 1 (SNMCMG1 - in 2010 and 2013).
Note: the filename contains AG classification (for the purpose of the upload to the main archive), due to very peculiar character of this vessel design. If any of You have any other suggestions, I'd be glad to know them.
I hoped to be able to post also the drawing of the baseline Pr.130 degaussing station, as well as projected Pr.130-I vessel, but due to the complexity of their specialized equipment, certain defficiences of sources (there are some high-quality photograps, but relatively few of them at the right angles, and it doesn't help when You really have no idea what the heck is that thing You are drawing
) I decided I'll try to finish them gradually at some later date.
Ideas to recreate "true" amphibious landing capabilities of the Polish Navy (in the first place through creation of some ground "marines-style" unit, secondly to acquire universal vessel similar to Danish Absalon) to support overseas NATO/UN operations are periodically raised, but it doesn't seem they will be fulfilled in the foreseable future. To the contrary, Polish Navy is practically on the verge of disappearing, as most of it's vessels will have to be decommissioned around 2015 due to their age (vessels of the Polish Navy are
on average 25 years old, with some vessels built in 1960s), few new orders are placed due to financial constraints, and some of them are woefully mismanaged (like the Gawron debacle).
THE END...?