4,000 US troops to be stationed in Poland - US Army

The Lieutenant General of the United States Army in Europe, Frederick Hodges, announced on Tuesday that the country will bolster its NATO presence in Poland, according to Polish press reports. The deployment will add several thousand troops, in addition to vehicles and other equipment, to the already 1,000-member-strong US force in Poland. Poland’s Ministry of Defence confirmed that the Armoured Brigade Combat Group (ABCT), will, by early next year, consist of a total of 4,000 troops. The new contingent follows up on plans decided on during Warsaw’s NATO summit this past July to increase the number of battalions in Poland, as well as Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, in response to Russia’s alleged military manoeuvres in the west of its territory. The first rotation early in the new year will involve, in addition to increases in troops, engineering support at military facilities in Żagan, Świętoszów, and Skwierzyna. Hodges believes that Russia is serious about being prepared for a potential war, although he hasn’t claimed that Russia intends to actually instigate a war. “We believe that the Russians are mobilizing right now for a war that they think is going to happen in five or six years,” he told the Wall Street Journal in February of 2016. Russia, for its part, denies precipitating an escalation of troops in the Baltic region, and has said that its exercises are simply a necessary precaution to buildups of NATO troops along its borders.