Polish and U.S. officials inaugurated a NATO missile defense base in northern Poland in November 2024, with Polish officials welcoming it as a significant step in securing the country and the NATO Alliance at a time of war in neighboring Ukraine.
The U.S. missile defense base, which is being integrated into NATO’s defenses, was originally planned under U.S. President George W. Bush as a way to protect Europe from ballistic threats from Iran. Poland, however, has always seen it as a form of U.S. protection in case of Russian aggression, fears that have grown since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Kremlin protested the plan from the start and denounced the base as a challenge to its own military potential that would require measures “to ensure parity.”
Polish officials, who gathered with the U.S. ambassador and other officials, welcomed the event as a historic step that increases U.S. commitment to Europe’s security at a time of uncertainty due to the war in Ukraine.
“The whole world will see clearly that this is not Russia’s sphere of interest anymore,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said at the ceremony in Redzikowo. “From the Polish point of view, this is strategically the most important thing.”
Poland’s Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz called the opening of the base with its hundreds of U.S. Navy personnel “an extraordinary event in the history of the security of Poland, the U.S. and NATO.” He said the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East are showing the importance of air defenses.
The facility is equipped with the U.S. Navy’s modern Aegis Ashore system, which can detect, track and destroy ballistic missiles in the initial phase of their flight. It is the second land element of Aegis Ashore in Europe after the first such installation went into operation in Romania in 2016.