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FORBIN · Oct 16, 2015

Dragon-15: The Largest Exercise of The Polish Army Begins. “Verifying Relocation And Mobilization Capabilities”

Yesterday, the Dragon exercise began - it is the largest Polish Army exercise scheduled to happen this year. The exercise, taking place at the Orzysz range, involves almost 7 thousand soldiers, including troops coming from Germany, Canada, United Kingdom or the United States of America.

11th “Lubuska” Armoured Cavalry Division is the main unit which takes part in the Dragon-15 exercise, including the elements of the 34th Armoured Cavalry Brigade, using the Leopard 2A5 tanks, and of the 17th “Wielkopolska” Mechanized Brigade. The latter element is equipped with the Rosomak APCs. The “Black Division” units are supported by the airborne elements (including the 25th Air Cavalry Brigade), bomb disposal units, reconnaissance units, special forces, elements of the air force, communications units, UAV operators, elements dealing with logistics, air defence units or by a mobilized territorial defence battalion.
The Polish Army is being additionally supported by a Multinational Combat Group, formed by the German, British, Canadian and American forces. That combat group is equipped, among other equipment, with the Challenger 2 and Leopard 2A6 Main Battle Tanks (from the 21st Armoured Brigade) and with the Marder 1 and Warrior IFVs. Scope of involvement on the part of the allied forces (ca. 900 soldiers in total) is related to the NATO activities connected with provision of support for the Mid-Eastern European states, in line with the commitments adopted during the Newport summit.
Dragon exercise is going to make it possible to perfect and verify the operational procedures related to: a defensive operations, including proper preparation of the logistics by the logistics element of the 11th “Lubuska” Armoured Cavalry Division; mobilization of the reserve forces; or deployment of the relevant units (including the allies) in the area of operations.
For the first time in history, a Division-level Logistics Element has been formed within the structures of the 11th “Lubuska” Armoured Cavalry Division. The element involves mostly the reservists. The reserve troops received the calls for duty from the Military Replenishment Councils, and later they have gone through a training course, carried out by the instructors of the 10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade.
The Dragon exercise is scheduled to last until 23rd October. The operation is going to involve 7 thousand soldiers, along with more than 700 examples of the heavy equipment. For the first time ever, since the process of professionalization of the Polish Army has been completed, a territorial defence battalion gathering the reserve troops has been formed, it also is involved in the exercise.

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FORBIN · Oct 17, 2015

US Brigade Command Unit In Poland Will Be Established In Ciechanow

Command of a US Army Brigade, is going to be located in Ciechanów, along with 200 units of equipment - as it was announced by Tomasz Siemoniak, Minister of Defence, who visited the city. This is one of the five locations for the US equipment storages, defined by an intergovernmental agreement between Poland and the United States of America. The remaining places, to which the US military hardware is going to be deployed, include Łask, Drawsko Pomorskie, Skwierzyna and Choszczno.

Declaration regarding the location of the US Base and command of the brigade, was made during the Siemoniak’s visit to Ciechanow. The infrastructure is going to be created within the area which had been previously used by the disbanded 1st Artillery Regiment of the Polish Army. Around 50 buildings and area of 60 acres – these numbers describe the new US Army base in Poland. Ciechanów, besides the Łask Air Base infrastructure, the Land Forces Training Centre in Drawsko Pomorskie and the Military Infrastructure in Skwierzyna and Choszczno, is going to be a place where the US weapons storages are going to be placed, as it was defined by a memorandum between the governments of the Republic of Poland and the United States of America.

Ciechanów is one of the locations where the heavy equipment of the US Army is going to be deployed. This constitutes a result of a long negotiation and consultation process. We want to provide the United States with the best proposals, and we want to carry out the adaptation works as quickly as possible, so that the base is active even before the NATO summit in Poland.

Tomasz Siemoniak, Minister of Defence
Thanks to the memorandum, Poland is going to be one of the nations gaining benefits from the European Reassurance Initiative, announced by President Obama in Warsaw, last year. The US investment related to the military infrastructure in Poland is being realized with the relevant funds, allocated to the above-mentioned programme. Talks with some local companies have already begun. These businesses are going to realize the works, the aim of which is to customize the existing infrastructure, so that it is suitable to be used for the newly defined purposes.

Deploying the command of the “rotational” brigade within the territory of Poland is a relevant signal, defining the meaning of Poland, and its key location on the NATO Eastern Flank. Ca. 200 equipment units are going to be stored in Ciechanów. Most probably, this equipment is going to be tied directly to the command and the staff functions. The whole brigade may consist of even 1200 units of equipment, 25% of which would include tanks, infantry fighting vehicles or self-propelled artillery. Auxiliary equipment and vehicles belonging to transport units are going to constitute majority of the above-mentioned equipment. The equipment is probably going to be used by a US Army Brigades soldiers, who are going to be permanently stationed in the United States of America, and who are going to maintain their presence in Europe only on a rotational basis.

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Polish Ministry of Defence: US Army’s Equipment Will Be Sent To Poland Next Year

Tomasz Siemoniak, Polish Minister of Defence, stated that heavy equipment of the US Armed forces is going to be deployed in two bases in Poland, in mid-2016 - as the Polish Press Agency reports.
Minister of Defence also said that the equipment is going to be used during the Anakonda 2016 exercise, and then it is going to be stored in Western and North-Eastern Poland – as the Polish Press Agency reports. M1 Abrams tanks and Bradley IFV’s will be the equipment which is going to be possibly deployed to Poland.

Deploying the said hardware in Poland is an element of reinforcing the reaction capabilities of the US forces in Europe. As we know, US Secretary of State, Ashton Carter, said that equipment sufficient to cover the needs of a US Army brigade combat group is going to be stored in Europe.

Core of the package above is formed by ca. 250 M1A2 Abrams tanks, M2/M3 Bradley IFV’s and M109 self-propelled howitzers. The hardware is going to be used by a US Army Brigade which is permanently stationed in the United States of America, acting under the jurisdiction of the US Forces’ European command.

Before the Ukrainian crisis started, the Americans stored equipment for a battalion-sized unit in Germany. It is quite plausible that a similar quantity of the hardware would be stationed in Poland. However, no heavy tactical elements of the US forces are present in Europe at the moment.

Deployment of the US heavy equipment in Europe makes it easier to enhance the quick reaction capabilities of the units operating under the jurisdiction of the European command of the US Forces. It should be noted though, that Bradley IFVs, tanks and other vehicles are going to be stationed in a variety of locations, including the Baltic republics and Germany.
Ray Odierno, who was the US Army commander at the time, noted in his interview for the Wall Street Journal, that he is going to undertake efforts, the aim of which would be to deploy equipment for another brigade in Germany. Deployment of that equipment could contribute to shortened reaction times – this is desirable from the point of view of the NATO member states located in Mid-Eastern Europe.

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Scratch · Oct 18, 2015

Air Force Brat said:
Looks like Germany has halted deliveries of the Eurofighter due to manufacturing defects, UK is continuing to receive theirs??? What specific defects other than the machining burrs???

There seems to be issues with drilling and spurr removal not according to specification at the tail-fuselage joint. As you already pretty much know.
Apparently, that extents to all aircraft recieved thus far(?) An investigation is underway. I can't really say how/if the british do better or what's behind it. It's really annoying ...

Air Force Brat · Oct 19, 2015

Scratch said:
There seems to be issues with drilling and spurr removal not according to specification at the tail-fuselage joint. As you already pretty much know.
Apparently, that extents to all aircraft recieved thus far(?) An investigation is underway. I can't really say how/if the british do better or what's behind it. It's really annoying ...

Seems the German birds are assembled in Spain?? I believe the Brit birds do not have issues, and yes it is annoying no doubt??

FORBIN · Oct 19, 2015

Seems the German birds are assembled in Spain??

But no Bro

to Manching close Munich, Austrians Typhoon also build there, each country build her Typhoon.
RAF typhoon also last year have the problem but RAF don' t have stop deliveries.

Airframe life time normal 3000 h but real 6000 h fortunately for a fighter of about 90 mill € !
Maybe a problem only for fighters of the last tranche 3A.

Actually in service : 09/2015
Spain 48 in service + 2 lost / 73 ordered : 19 Tr 1, 34 Tr 2, 20 Tr 3
Italy 80 / 96 ordere : 28 Tr 1, 47 Tr 2, 21 Tr 3
UK 129/ 160 ordered 53 Tr 1, 67 Tr 2, 40 Tr 3
Germany 117/ 143 ordered 33 Tr 1, 79 Tr 2, 31 Tr 3
Saudi Arabia minimum 48/ 72 ordered 24 Tr 2, 48 Tr 3
Austria 15 Tr 1
Oman 12 Tr 3
Koweit but deal no signed 28 Tr 3

Very good interceptor with a powerful PESA radar after a AESA planned, agile, armed with a big number of AAM max 10, good range but Tr1 and 2 few versatile especialy for air to ground missions, no recc pod and expensive.