DRAWSKO POMORSKIE, Poland — The United States took another step in being ready for any future war or other potential contingencies in Eastern Europe with the recent unveiling of a new military staging area in central-west Poland.
The new staging area will be able to accommodate as many as 3,600 American troops, or roughly an Army brigade’s worth, should they be rapidly needed in that part of the world — something on military planners’ minds after the first large-scale invasion by one country of another in Europe since World War II.
The staging area, which spans about 75 acres, will allow U.S. troops to arrive, organize, and be ready in as little as three days if necessary. The staging area is based at Drawsko Pomorskie Training Area near Poznan, Poland.
U.S. military staging area at the Drawsko Pomorskie Training Site in central-west Poland. (Kristina Wong/Breitbart News)
Air Force Maj. Gen. Daniel Lasica, director for strategy, plans, and policy for U.S. European Command, said at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday that the staging area will “further enhance our security cooperation, interoperability, and force readiness between our countries and our militaries, and it will strengthen NATO’s deterrence along its eastern flank in support of the alliance and transatlantic security.”
The Drawsko Pomorskie Training Area is the largest Polish land forces training site in the country, and is commonly referred to as the “Fort Bragg of Poland.” It boasts training sites for everything from small arms to heavy artillery and tanks.
Several hundred U.S. troops already train at the base, but the staging area could rapidly accommodate the presence of many more for rotational deployments or military exercises.
Most importantly, it will allow the U.S. military to have more options in a given contingency, Lasica said in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News.
“It’s about agility. It’s about flexibility. It’s about options,” Lasica said. “This facility in particular gives us the ability to — we talked about RSOM [Reception, Staging, and Onward Movement] — you can accept forces here, you can stage them, and you can move them around.”
“What our senior leaders require is options, in any crisis, any conflict, or even in campaigning time. And so these kinds of facilities [in] Poland are going to give us that agility, that flexibility, and those options, because we have to be able to be actually moving across the battlespace,” he said.
“Places like this allow us to work together. We live together, we train together — we can be as ready as we possibly can be together,” he added.
Maj. Gen. Daniel Lasica and Polish Col. Dominik Kaminski after the ribbon-cutting ceremony. (Kristina Wong/Breitbart News)
Polish Brig. Gen. Tadeusz Mądrala hailed the unveiling of the staging area as “a new chapter in the Polish-American military partnership and cooperation.”
“I am happy that I see so many American uniforms here today. You are welcome here in Poland. Your presence matters to all of us, to all Polish citizens, particularly in today’s geopolitical situation when thinking of the unprecedented brutality of Russian forces in Ukraine a few kilometers from the Polish border,” he said in remarks during the ceremony.
The staging area is not the U.S. military’s first one in Poland, but it is the first to be completed under a joint agreement between the U.S. and Poland known as the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), which was signed during the Trump administration in August 2020.
The agreement established a detailed framework for the future U.S. military presence in Poland, and allows U.S. forces to utilize 19 locations throughout Poland.
The new staging area at Drawsko Pomorskie was funded and constructed by Poland, as part of a subordinate program called the Poland Provided Infrastructure (PPI). Under the PPI, Poland will contribute approximately $3.5 billion to build and upgrade locations in Poland used by the U.S. military, which will total 114 construction projects.
Polish forces and engineers at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. (Kristina Wong/Breitbart News)
Those construction projects include a munitions storage area and bulk fuel storage at Powidz, also in central-west Poland, and the U.S. Army’s V Corps Headquarters Forward in Poznan. So far, under the PPI, seven projects have been completed, and four more are slated to be completed by January 2024.
There is also a similar program for logistical support to U.S. forces in Poland. Under the Poland Provided Logistics Support (PPLS), Poland will provide U.S. troops with lodging, food services, medical and emergency support, and other kinds of logistical support. The PPLS also provides for ammunition and fuel storage.
Lasica said during the ribbon-cutting ceremony that the EDCA “manifests our unbreakable bond between our nations, and our mutual dedication to peace, security, collective defense and the preservation of freedom.”
“The U.S.-Poland relationship is strong, and continues to get stronger as we build our collective capabilities to confront complex security challenges of the 21st century,” he said.
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