ORP Kaszub is a corvette of the Polish Navy, in service since 1987,[1] the sole ship of the Project 620 class. She was the first ocean-going warship built in Poland. As of 2012 she is in active service.[2]
The work on her design began in 1971, but the construction of the first ship started only in 1984, being laid down at Stocznia Północna (Northern Shipyard), Gdańsk on 9 June 1984. Kaszub was launched on 11 May 1986, but was found to have a warped hull and propeller shafts, which required repair. When the ship was commissioned on 15 March 1987, Kaszub was not fitted with much of the planned armament, with a 9K33 Osa (NATO codename SA-N-4 Gecko) surface-to-air missile launcher being omitted because of its unreliability on small, high speed ships, while the ship's main gun armament was absent because of stability problems.[3] Originally it was planned to build 7 ships of this class, but in the end only one was constructed.[3]
At first, Kaszub saw little operational use, being loaned to the Polish Border guard from 1990 to January 1991. In September 1991, the ship was fitted with an AK-176 76mm gun turret forward.
In October 2016 AM-35 Tryton, turret system with single 35mm Oerlikon gun was mounted, tested and officially certified 19 December 2018.