Polish and U.S. soldiers stand in formation during a ceremony renaming Camp Kościuszko in Poznań, Poland, on July 30, 2022. The installation marked the first permanent U.S. military presence on NATO’s eastern flank. Polish officials now say they hope to expand the U.S. presence to as many as 15,000 troops. (Garrison Waites/U.S. Army)
Poland is seeking to transform the U.S. military’s largely rotational presence in the country into a permanent deployment with up to 15,000 American troops, a senior Polish official said this week.
Marcin Przydacz, a minister in Poland’s presidential office, said Warsaw is in discussions with the United States about expanding the American military presence beyond current deployment plans.
“Our ambition is 15,000, while the minimum version is 11,000,” Przydacz said in an interview with Polish broadcaster RMF FM. “The final decisions are still ahead of us.”
While the U.S. military has operated in Poland for years, virtually all of the infrastructure that has been developed over the past decade has been designed to support rotational units on temporary missions.
If large units such as Army brigades are to be relocated to Poland, garrisons with support services and amenities for family members also would be required.
That means construction of on-post schools, health clinics and family housing units, which would be a multiyear effort if it comes to fruition.
In May, the U.S. canceled the deployment of roughly 4,000 armored brigade soldiers to Poland, prompting outcry in Warsaw. Weeks later, President Donald Trump responded, saying he would send 5,000 troops to the country.
After meeting Trump over the weekend in Washington, Polish President Karol Nawrocki said the talks reaffirmed that the plan for 5,000 troops was still on track.
The Pentagon, however, has yet to detail where those forces will come from, when they might be sent and where in Poland they will go.
“It is one thing for troops to come to Poland, but we also need to know where they will be stationed, which base they will use and where they will be accommodated,” Przydacz added.
Prior to the decision to cancel the deployment of an armored brigade to Poland, the U.S. had about 10,000 troops operating in the country.
While the 5,000-troop pledge by Trump would bring force levels back to roughly where they were a couple of months ago, Warsaw says it is aiming higher.
The ultimate goal is to shift a largely rotational presence into a permanent one with new bases, similar to the U.S. Army’s setup in Germany, Przydacz said.
“For that, specific agreements, concrete infrastructure and action on the part of both the Pentagon and Poland’s Ministry of National Defense are needed,” he said. “But the most important direction is, of course, the decision of the White House itself.”
