US and Poland agree on location of new site for Patriot air-defence systems

Defense Professionals ^ | 02/05/2010 | Defense Professionals

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

As Polish and American parties have agreed the site for the stationing Patriot missiles in Poland will be Morag in the northeast of the country near the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. As the Minister of National Defence Bogdan Klich said practical reasons stay behind the choice of the site for the temporary stationing of U.S. air defence batteries

The location of Warmia-Mazury province was determined by good logistic and lodging conditions, Klich explained. In Morag currently station units of 20th Mechanized Brigade. “The location of missile bases in Morag will not require significant investment that would have to be made in case of another proposed selection site in Wesola near Warsaw”, minister added.

On 11th December 2009 the Agreement was signed between the Government of the Republic of Poland and the Government of the United States on the status of the US Armed Forces stationing on Polish territory (Status of Forces Agreement - SOFA supplementary). The goal of the Agreement is to establish a comprehensive and detailed legal basis for the long-term US’ troops stationing in Poland. The Polish Government agreed to the deploy on the Polish territory US ground base of American SM-3 missile, being a part of the US missile defence system in Europe. The Agreement has now been passed to the Polish Parliament.