Geopolitics
US Brigade Command Unit In Poland Will Be Established In Ciechanow
Command of a US Army Brigade, is going to be located in Ciechanów, along with 200 units of equipment - as it was announced by Tomasz Siemoniak, Minister of Defence, who visited the city. This is one of the five locations for the US equipment storages, defined by an intergovernmental agreement between Poland and the United States of America. The remaining places, to which the US military hardware is going to be deployed, include Łask, Drawsko Pomorskie, Skwierzyna and Choszczno.
Declaration regarding the location of the US Base and command of the brigade, was made during the Siemoniak’s visit to Ciechanow. The infrastructure is going to be created within the area which had been previously used by the disbanded 1st Artillery Regiment of the Polish Army. Around 50 buildings and area of 60 acres – these numbers describe the new US Army base in Poland. Ciechanów, besides the Łask Air Base infrastructure, the Land Forces Training Centre in Drawsko Pomorskie and the Military Infrastructure in Skwierzyna and Choszczno, is going to be a place where the US weapons storages are going to be placed, as it was defined by a memorandum between the governments of the Republic of Poland and the United States of America.
Ciechanów is one of the locations where the heavy equipment of the US Army is going to be deployed. This constitutes a result of a long negotiation and consultation process. We want to provide the United States with the best proposals, and we want to carry out the adaptation works as quickly as possible, so that the base is active even before the NATO summit in Poland.
Thanks to the memorandum, Poland is going to be one of the nations gaining benefits from the European Reassurance Initiative, announced by President Obama in Warsaw, last year. The US investment related to the military infrastructure in Poland is being realized with the relevant funds, allocated to the above-mentioned programme. Talks with some local companies have already begun. These businesses are going to realize the works, the aim of which is to customize the existing infrastructure, so that it is suitable to be used for the newly defined purposes.
Deploying the command of the “rotational” brigade within the territory of Poland is a relevant signal, defining the meaning of Poland, and its key location on the NATO Eastern Flank. Ca. 200 equipment units are going to be stored in Ciechanów. Most probably, this equipment is going to be tied directly to the command and the staff functions. The whole brigade may consist of even 1200 units of equipment, 25% of which would include tanks, infantry fighting vehicles or self-propelled artillery. Auxiliary equipment and vehicles belonging to transport units are going to constitute majority of the above-mentioned equipment. The equipment is probably going to be used by a US Army Brigades soldiers, who are going to be permanently stationed in the United States of America, and who are going to maintain their presence in Europe only on a rotational basis.