"In a turbulent time for Europe, both Poland and Sweden are taking responsibility in both words and actions," writes Ulf Kristersson in a post on the social network X.
At the same time, his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk writes:
"Poland and Sweden. Stronger together for security in the Baltic Sea, Europe and NATO."
Built in Karlskrona and Landskrona
The three submarines will be built at Saab's shipyards in Karlskrona and Landskrona. Under the agreement, Saab will also invest up to 100 million euros in Poland.
Thousands of jobs will be created by the deal, according to Kristersson - 7,000 of them in Poland.
Deliveries will be made gradually, with final delivery planned for 2038, according to Saab.
"The contract also includes weapons packages, training and support packages. The order value amounts to approximately SEK 47 billion," Saab writes in a press release.
"To enable the implementation of the contract and the Polish Navy's operation of the submarines, Saab intends to establish maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) capacity in Poland in close cooperation with Polish industry," the company adds.
It is a very important deal to secure long-term volume, says Daniel Djurberg, Saab analyst at Handelsbanken, about the deal.
"Now Saab is entering a phase where it can expand and hopefully increase margins in this business area. It's an important piece of the puzzle," he adds.
“Now you can get paid”
The A26 submarine is the result of intensive and very costly development work since Saab bought back the shipyards in Karlskrona, Malmö and Muskö from Germany's Thyssen Krupp in 2014.
"Now you can get paid for this enormous investment. Saab and Sweden needed to build this expertise almost from scratch again," says Djurberg.
Under the agreement, Poland will also lease HMS Södermanland, an older-type Swedish submarine (A17), until 2032.
A new bilateral security policy cooperation for the Baltic Sea has also been initiated by the countries' governments, called the Baltic Sea Pact.
Back in November last year, Poland's Minister of Defense Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz announced that the Polish government had decided on Saab as the supplier of new submarines.
