Earlier this month, after the Trump administration announced plans to pare down the number of US troops in Germany from 34,500 to 25,000 over Berlin's “delinquency” on NATO spending obligations, Moscow warned that Russia-NATO relations could worsen if these forces were moved east to Poland.
The US plans to deploy 2,000 troops to Poland, double the roughly 1,000 previously expected, Polish daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna has reported, referring to the upcoming defence talks between President Donald Trump and President Andrzeij Duda during Duda's visit to the US on Wednesday.
TheAviationist.com says it's unclear where the F-16s will come from, but hints the jets may come from the Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany, where 28 F-16s are currently based.
Poland, DGP says, is also looking to buy US combat helicopters – possibly Boeing AH-64 Apaches or Bell AH-1Z Vipers, although the status of that deal is also unclear.
NATO Bridge Head
NATO and US forces regularly engage in exercises on Polish territory, and use the country to transit forces further east, to the Baltic States. Additionally, the US has a symbolic detachment of Air Force personnel stationed in Poland. In September 2019, President Trump approved the construction of a permanent military base in the Eastern European country, which Warsaw graciously offered to name ‘Fort Trump'. Earlier this month however, US officials told Reuters that the project has run into problems.
In addition to troops on the…
