Defense: Patriot battle squadrons en route to Poland

The Bundeswehr has begun moving the first two of the three promised Patriot anti-aircraft missile squadrons from Germany to Poland.

Defense: Patriot battle squadrons en route to Poland

The Bundeswehr has begun moving the first two of the three promised Patriot anti-aircraft missile squadrons from Germany to Poland.

Three convoys with 40 vehicles and 150 soldiers set off from Gnoien (Rostock district). The anti-aircraft systems are to be deployed in the vicinity of the city of Zamość in south-eastern Poland, where the convoys are due to arrive on Wednesday afternoon. From there it is around 60 kilometers to the Ukrainian border and 110 kilometers to the Ukrainian city of Lviv (Lemberg). The third season will follow in the next few days.

Bundeswehr soldiers have been on site in Poland since January 16 to work with Polish units to ensure that the components of the weapon system are installed. "Patriot is a purely defensive system," said the German contingent leader of the Bundeswehr forces in Poland, Colonel Jörg Sievers. The aim is to protect NATO airspace and thus also Polish territory, the infrastructure and the population. The assignment is initially limited to six months. Poland's neighbor Ukraine has been at war with Russia since the Russian attack in February 2022.

After a missile hit Polish territory in November last year, then Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) and her Polish counterpart Mariusz Blaszczak agreed that German Patriot missile defense systems would be relocated to Poland. Sievers recalled that two Polish citizens were killed in the missed shot. With the Patriots it is to be hoped that such accidents could be prevented in the future.

Bundeswehr: Anti-Aircraft Missile Group 24

NEXT NEWS