Two Bundeswehr Patriot systems are set to protect a strategically important airport near Rzeszow in south-east Poland that is key to supplying war-torn Ukraine for the next six months.
“These two units will protect NATO alliance territory and at the same time – and this is very important – the logistical supply of Ukraine,” said German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius after the handover in Rzeszów.
Some 200 soldiers are to operate the systems at the airport, which is some 100 kilometres from the Ukrainian border.
Poland, an EU and NATO member state, is a key political and military ally of Ukraine, which is fending off a full-scale Russian invasion launched in 2022.
Pistorius paid tribute to Poland, saying it fulfils its role with “incredible bravura, commitment and passion.”
Germany also plans to temporarily relocate a Eurofighter fighter aircraft to Poland in summer and this would later monitor Romania’s airspace.
The airport near Rzeszów is a central logistical hub for Western military aid to Kiev. Previously, US soldiers were stationed there and the airport was protected by US Patriot units.
Polish Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz thanked the US personnel who are being replaced by the Bundeswehr soldiers.
German Patriot squadrons already deployed in Poland from January to November 2023, with 320 soldiers running three Patriot systems at two locations near the city of Zamość, close to the Ukrainian border.
They were deployed to protect the country’s airspace after two people were killed when a missile hit a Polish village near the border at the end of 2022.
The Bundeswehr’s Patriot systems, made in the US, are among the most advanced air defence systems in the world and are used to combat enemy aircraft, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles.
The defence missiles can hit targets at a distance of around 100 kilometres and at altitudes of up to 30 kilometres in an imaginary bell around the position – depending on the missile used.
