Making NATO shipshape
By the close of the year NATO will invest EUR 42 (zl.163) million in Poland, more than double the country's EUR 20 (zł.78) million contribution. The total amount of NATO's capital investment in Poland by 2010 will amount to EUR 469 (zl.1,818) million.
While much of this money will be pumped into a defense system modernization project, perhaps the most significant investment for NATO is funding for its new Joint Force Training Centre (JFTC), in Bydgoszcz, which will play and increasingly important role in shaping NATO itself.
Opened to much fanfare last year the facility has a staff of around 90 who are the foundations of a center of expertise for NATO joint operations and warfare at the tactical level.
JFTC director Major General Peter Kühnel said: "We are committed to providing the Alliance with up-to-date training support for exercises and preparation for live missions.
"JFTC's primary role is to support the training of the component headquarters in order to promote interoperability within the joint force. Furthermore we are supporting Alliance transformation through experimentation and doctrine development."
The Danish Army commander said the funds will boost training facilities by creating a center to allow computer-assisted exercises and lecture facilities for an audience of up to 250 people.
Maj Gen Kühnel added: "As a priority the JFTC provides support to the NATO Response Force [NRF] component commanders in the training and exercising of the NRF.
"The centre also supports HQs and staffs in the preparation for a mission, and conducts courses for partner nation forces to ensure the required interoperability.
"The centre is able to host training events or deploy staff to provide support and expertise. The centre is able to run courses, conduct training and provide advice to a variety of training audiences across the Alliance. It is able to cooperate with other national training centers to ensure the application of NATO standards and doctrine in combined and joint fields."
Last week's exercise, code-named CPX3, consisted of around 300 military servicemen from Poland, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Germany, Slovakia and Turkey. They were testing operational systems and procedures surrounding the possibility of sending peacekeepers from these countries to Afghanistan in 2007 in the framework of a NATO peace mission.
During the two-day operation the troops conducted tactical practices using computer simulation and trained their strategic and tactical command and control capabilities at the multi-national forces' northeast corps headquarters in Szczecin.
