25 September 2019
US and Poland flesh out their defence co-operation
by Nicholas Fiorenza
US President Donald Trump and his Polish counterpart, Andrzej Duda, signed a Joint Declaration on Advancing Defense Cooperation between their two countries on the fringes of the UN General Assembly in New York on 23 September.
The declaration builds on the Joint Declaration on Defense Cooperation Regarding United States Force Posture in Poland signed on 12 June.
USAF MQ-9 Reaper MALE UAVs will be based at Łask having previously operated from Mirosławiec AB. (USAF)
The earlier agreement had already envisaged an increase in the number of US troops rotating through Poland (currently about 4,500) by an additional 1,000 personnel in the near term.
The June agreement also cited Poland’s plans to provide and sustain jointly determined infrastructure at no cost to the US for the establishment of a US Army divisional headquarters (forward); a joint-use combat training centre (CTC); an MQ-9 Reaper intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance squadron; an aerial port of debarkation (APOD); an area support group; a US special forces capability; and an armoured brigade combat team (ABCT), combat aviation brigade, and combat sustainment support battalion.
The location of the CTC, Drawsko Pomorskie, was already known in June, and the 23 September agreement gives the location of the divisional headquarters (forward) and the US Army area support group as Poznań; the US Air Force (USAF) APOD as Wrocław-Strachowice; the USAF remotely piloted aircraft squadron as Łask; the combat aviation brigade and combat sustainment support battalion as Podwidz; and special forces facilities at Podwdiz and Lubliniec.
The US and Poland are still discussing the location of the ABCT.
“There are no decisions yet on where these units will come from, but they will continue to be rotational in nature,” a Pentagon spokesperson told Jane’s
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US President Donald Trump and his Polish counterpart, Andrzej Duda, signed a Joint Declaration on Ad...
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