Poland orders three Saab A-26 Type submarines, leases HSwMS Sodermanland

My ‘chats’ with Pete in the comments section of articles on Submarine Matters often meander away from the subject topic (eg. VSL in AIP boats). By coincidence, our recent discussion on diver/UUV lockout systems and Saab is bang on topic, as Poland has just ordered three A26-type submarines from Saab. These A26s are expected to be commissioned into the Polish Navy by 2038.

 

A26 in Polish Navy service. Image: Saab
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This order, worth approximately Swedish Krona (SEK) 47 billion (USD 4.8 billion), includes Saab “establishing maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) capabilities in Poland in close collaboration with Polish industry, thereby supporting strategic autonomy for Poland”. Sweden is also leasing His Swedish Majesty's Ship HSwMS Sodermanland (see Wikipedia file) to Poland from 2026 to 2032 for training, and to “rapidly reinforce” Poland’s underwater capacity. Sodermanland is a forty-year-old submarine that received an overhaul in 2014-2016 and a lifetime extension in 2022. It will allow Polish submariners to train on Swedish systems, in preparation for the A26-class.

Sweden's official announcement also indicated that Poland will participate "in Sweden’s test and experiment activities with the HMS Blekinge and HMS Skåne", Sweden's A26 boats, which would mean that Poland is a development partner of the entire program, not simply an end-user customer.

A fascinating interview, here and above. How much can a Swedish Captain tell a Polish journalist on TV? Uploaded June 26, 2026 in Poland. TV Poland (TVP) World's Maciej Mikoson (pronounced Machi Emikos) interviews Royal Swedish Navy Captain Kenth Gutensparr, Project Manager and Coordinator for the training and support in the Swedish-Polish three A26 Orka Program. They discuss Sweden’s role regarding such issues as how long it will take to train Polish submariners to operate the A26s. Captain Gutensparr paints a discrete picture of Polish and Swedish strategic capabilities in the Baltic for the next decade.

Polish crew training will start in August 2026 at the Royal Swedish Navy’s Karlskrona base.

Shawn C’s commentary

Poland’s selection of the A26 in 2025 was seen by many as a godsend for a long-running submarine development program which began in 2010. Ordered in 2015 for delivery in 2022, the first A26 boat, HSwMS Blekinge, was laid down in June 2022, and is now expected for delivery in 2031.

In 2012, I fully expected Singapore, which had bought seven used submarines from Sweden's Kockums (before it was sold to Germany's TKMS) to order the A26, as this would lead to a billion-dollar cash infusion to Kockums to enable it to build its infrastructure. Then there were allegations (reported by SubMatts) that TKMS blocked Kockums from responding to Singapore’s 2012 submarine contest. This contributed to TKMS winning an order in 2013 for what is now currently six Invincible-class (TKMS Type-218SG) submarines. 

Kockums was then bought out by Saab in 2014, which coincidentally was also the year Russia illegally occupied the Ukrainian provinces of Crimea and Donbas. Saab immediately restarted the A26 program, with Sweden placing it's order for two A26s  in 2015.

In 2024, Sweden, now a NATO member with expanded treaty commitments, still has outdated submarine yards at Karlskrona and Landskrona. Those yards have not built new submarines since the last Gotland-class boat, HSwMS Halland, was launched in 1996! So Poland’s ‘buy-in’ on the A26 should see significant Polish investment and industrial offsets, including technical staff training and technology transfer, as Polish companies become part of the A26 project supply chain. In Poland, Sweden also gains a naval partner with the facilities to build 7,000-ton modern warships, which Saab currently lacks. 

Sweden also had a follow-on plan in 2024 to replace the three Gotland boats with smaller A30 boats (see last paragraph here) in the late 2030s. But with Poland's order of three A26s, Saab Kockums will soon have a hot production yard and achieve economies of scale, so we could see follow-on orders for the A26 from Sweden.

No information on the systems and weapons fit of Poland's A26 has been revealed, though Saab did display a possible Polish model with vertical launch systems (VLS) at defence trade shows. As Pete mentioned in his article on Canada's CPSP, a VSL module would add a significant displacement to a 2,000-ton AIP submarine, impacting range, speed and endurance.

Saab A26 model with VLS. Image: militaraktuell.at
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Could Polish A26s come equipped with Saab's Horizontal Multi-purpose Lock (HMPL), also called the Multi-Mission Portal (MMP)? This is very likely, considering that the A26 is optimised for the constrained waters of the Baltic Sea, and Saab has a Large Uncrewed Undersea Vehicle (LUUV) that fits. The Lock/Portal's diameter might be anywhere between 1m and 1.5m.

The A26's HMPL/MMP under development in a Saab workshop. Image: Screenshot from a segment 4 to 8 minutes into this navalnews.com video
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