Poles believe that the placement of the US military's V Corps command on the country's territory will improve its security. The survey, conducted by IBRiS and commissioned by the Rzeczpospolita daily, shows that 87.6% of respondents give a good assessment of the US decision to locate in Poland the command of the US army corps, which secures NATO's eastern flank. Barely 6.9% of respondents are against it, while the rest have no opinion.
The upgrade from temporary to permanent presence of the U.S. Army V Corps command was announced by U.S. President Joe Biden during the NATO summit in Madrid. A forward command post of the compound, which coordinates US ground forces in Europe, has already been operating in Poznan since the fall of 2020. Already after Russia's attack on Ukraine, the Americans announced the transfer of the permanent command of V Corps from the US to Europe and the redeployment of more servicemen from Fort Knox to Germany and Poland. According to a Pentagon statement, the corps' forward command is being referred to, as well as a support battalion and an army garrison command. The U.S. Defense Department added that these will be the first-ever permanent units on the eastern flank, in addition to plans to continue and expand the rotational presence.
National Security Bureau chief Pawel Soloch said after the NATO summit that the U.S. administration's decision is "not only about a few hundred additional officers, but also about the readiness to receive a corps-sized reinforcement force, or even tens of thousands of troops, in case of an emergency." President Andrzej Duda said that the reference is to the arrival in Poland of "additional American officers who will have Poland as their permanent place of stationing and who are therefore in some sense, one could say, moving to Poland." He specified that initially there will be about 300 American officers who "will form the forpost of the V Corps command."
The reconstituted V Corps participated in the recent U.S. military exercises carried out in Poland "Defender-Europe 22," among other places.
After Russia's aggression against Ukraine, the US moved, among others, an armored brigade to Europe (to Germany), an airborne brigade to Poland (stationed in Rzeszow, among other places), with command and control elements, a HIMARS rocket artillery battalion, fighter aircraft (including the F-35), aerial refueling and radio-electronic warfare aircraft. This brought the number of US troops in Europe to more than 100,000. In addition, the deployment of some of the forces permanently stationed in Europe has changed - Patriot helicopters and kits permanently based in Germany have been moved to Poland.
NATO figures show that 11,600 allied troops are currently stationed in Poland; in addition to the Americans, they are British, Croatian, Romanian.