Germany is stationing Patriot units in Poland – for the second time

Germany is again preparing to temporarily relocate the Patriot air defense system to Poland. The Federal Ministry of Defense announced that it had offered NATO to send the Patriot squadrons there at the beginning of the year. The units could stay in Poland for up to six months.

“We will thereby protect a logistical hub in Poland that is of central importance for the delivery of material to Ukraine,” said Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD). In this way, the Bundeswehr secures the supply of vehicles, weapons and ammunition that Ukraine urgently needs to defend itself against Russian attacks. Poland welcomes the German decision, wrote Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz on X.

The plan is to temporarily station soldiers and weapon systems in the Rzeszow area in southeastern Poland. The exploration for this should start in the coming days.

German Patriot squadrons were already deployed in Poland from January to November 2023. During this time, around 320 men and women from the Bundeswehr operated three Patriot systems at two locations near the town of Zamosc, 33 kilometers west of the border with Ukraine. They were supposed to protect the country’s airspace after two people were killed when a rocket hit a Polish village near the border at the end of 2022.

The EU and NATO country Poland is an important political and military ally of Ukraine, which is attacked by Russia. It also plays an important role as a logistical hub for Western military aid to Kiev.

The airport near Rzeszow is central to the transport of military equipment. US soldiers are currently stationed there and the airport is protected by American Patriot units. Freight railway line No. 65 is also important for logistics. It was built in communist Poland in Russian broad gauge and runs via Zamosc to Poland’s border with Ukraine, which also has broad gauge. Wagons with heavy weapons are rolling east along the railway line.

The planned renewed deployment of German Patriot systems is therefore not a reaction to an immediate change in the security situation. Rather, the military facilities in the area have been protected against possible attacks for some time out of fundamental considerations.

The Bundeswehr’s Patriot systems are among the most modern in the world. They are used to combat enemy aircraft, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles. At a distance of around 100 kilometers and up to altitudes of 30 kilometers, the defense missiles can hit targets in an imaginary bell around the position – depending on the guided missile used.