Defense
Poland has been a member of NATO since 1999. To see related acronyms about this country, please check ABBREVIATIONFINDER where you can see that POL stands for Poland. The defense,
which is based on general military duty with an initial
service of 9 months, comprises (2006) 141,500 men with
234,000 in reserve. The reorganization carried out after the
fall of the Wall in 1989 and the dissolution of the Warsaw
Pact sought, in addition to adapting the organization to the CFE's lower staffing framework, including: to create
high-level alliances (equivalent to NATO's Rapid Deployment
Forces) grouped in southeastern Poland. After 1999, the
reorganization is slow, mainly for financial reasons.
The defense consists of an army of 89,000 men, 277,000
fully manned, with four mechanized divisions and five
independent mobile brigades. The Navy has 12,300 men, 24,000
fully manned, with 5 submarines, 7 larger and 16 smaller
fighter vessels, 5 landing craft and a 2,000-man naval
aircraft with 18 fighter aircraft. The Air Force comprises
30,000 men, 49,000 men fully manned, with 142 fighter
aircraft and 18 attack helicopters. Semi-military security
forces amount to 21,000 men. The equipment is semi-modern
and mainly of Soviet origin, but is slowly being replaced by
NATO equipment.
Defense costs fell from 8.1 to 1.9% of GDP in 1985-2006.
Poland participates in a number of UN peacekeeping efforts.
Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina (EUFOR II), Ivory Coast,
Democratic Republic of Congo, Georgia, Iraq, Lebanon,
Liberia, Serbia, Montenegro, Sudan, Syria/Israel (UNDOF)
and Western Sahara.
Poland's defense overview
It is not compulsory first-time service in Poland. In
1999, Poland joined NATO. Poland has close defense policy
cooperation with the United States, which has deployed a
battery of Patriot missiles in the northern part of the
country. In May 2011, the two countries signed an agreement
on US military presence in Poland. Along with the United
States, the United Kingdom and Australia, Poland
participated in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, where there were
mostly 2,500 Polish soldiers. The Polish force was withdrawn
in 2008.
Poland has defense cooperation through the Visegrad Group
and with the countries on the eastern flank of NATO
countries in Europe. NATO contributes to defense through the
Enhanced Forward Presence operation.
The total force figures for Poland's armed forces are
117,800 active personnel (2018, IISS). In addition, 73,400
semi-military police and border guards come.
Army
The army has a strength of 61,200 active personnel.
Materials include 637 tanks (247 Leopard 2, 232 PT-91 and
158 T-72), 427 self-propelled artillery, 1636 storm- armored
vehicles, 257 armored personnel vehicles and 435
self-propelled artillery, eight of which are self-propelled
air defense artillery. In addition, the Army has heavy
artillery, short-range anti-aircraft missiles, anti-aircraft
artillery and 126 helicopters, of which 28 Mi-24 combat
helicopters.
Air Force
The Air Force has a strength of 18 700 active personnel.
Material comprising 32 fighters of a MiG-29, 66 fighter
aircraft (48 F-16 and 18 Su-22), 46 transport, 68 trainers
and 77 helicopters. In addition, the Air Force has long
range air defense missiles.
The Navy
The Navy has a force of 7,000 active personnel. The fleet
includes three tactical submarines (one of the Kilo class
and two of the Kobben class), two frigates of the Oliver
Hazard Perry class, four patrol vessels, 21 minesweepers,
eight landings and 20 logistics and auxiliary vessels. In
addition, the Navy has 10 maritime patrol aircraft, four
light transport aircraft, 27 helicopters and coastal defense
missiles.
International operations
In 2018, Poland participated in NATO operations in
Afghanistan (Operation Resolute Support) with 315
personnel, in Kosovo (KFOR) with 252 personnel, and has
deployed 160 personnel in Latvia (Enhanced Forward
Presence).
Poland also participated in UN operations in the
Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) with an observer, in
Kosovo (UNMIK) with an observer, in South Sudan (UNMISS)
with an observer, and in Western Sahara (MINURSO) with two
observers.
In addition, Poland participated in the EU operation in
Bosnia and Herzegovina (EUFOR) with 39 personnel. Poland
is a member of the UN and most of the UN's special
organizations, including the World Bank and the World Trade
Organization (WTO). The country is also a member of the OSCE
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the
Council of Europe (from 1991) and the OECD - Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development (from 1996). Poland
was a member of the former cooperative organizations of the
Warsaw Pact and Comecon. The country entered into a
Partnership for Peace Agreement with NATO in 1994 and became
a full member in 1999. Poland joined the EUMay 1, 2004 in
the first pool of new members from the former communist
countries. The EU Border Control Agency (FRONTEX) is
headquartered in Warsaw. The OSCE Office for Democratic
Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has offices in Warsaw.
Poland was a member of the UN Security Council in
2018–2019. It was the sixth time Poland was a member of the
UN Security Council.
Poland has 88 embassies, 35 consulates, eight permanent
delegations to international organizations and one
representative office (to the PLO). Poland - Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw, capital of Poland; 1. 8 million residents (2018). Warsaw is located
in the middle of the country, on the river Wisła. Like other Eastern European
cities, after the Second World War, the city was supplied with large-scale
industries such as steel mills. Administration and cultural life are highly
centralized in Warsaw with, among other things, parliament, the Supreme Court,
scientific central institutions and archives. In Warsaw there are also
universities (founded in 1817), twelve colleges, a large number of museums and
theaters, concert halls and book publishers. The tramways here form the backbone
of public transport, but Warsaw's first metro line was inaugurated in 1995.
Warsaw is Poland's most important traffic hub with five railway stations and the
Okęcie International Airport. The oldest parts of the city are located on
Wisła's western shore above a marked slope.
Architecture and cityscape
Also in its post-1945 rebuilt state, Warsaw is an architectural attraction.
The Old Town (Stare Miasto) is a walled medieval town with regular street
networks and a large square with gabled houses. The new city (Nowe Miasto) is a
late medieval new founding, originally a city of its own.
Only during Sigismund III Vasa's time did Warsaw become a more significant
city, and the medieval castle on the southern edge of Stare Miasto was converted
into a royal residence. Churches and nobles' palaces in the Italian Renaissance
characterized the new cityscape. From the Castle Square (Plac Zamkowy) and to
the south, the long and richly varied street street leads to Krakowskie
Przedmieście-Nowy Świat. To the south of the then city, the classicist castle
castle Łazienki (1775–95) was erected by Domenico Merlini (1730–97). In 1820's
Warsaw, new institutions were built in classicist forms by Antonio Corazzi
(1792-1877), including the Stock Exchange and the Finance Minister's Palace.
The reconstruction after 1945 was in the older districts a reconstruction
that took hold at all stages of Warsaw's architectural heritage, from the late
Middle Ages to classicism, but left most of the 19th century aside. The
reconstructed Stare Miasto became the most prestigious building of the European
1950s and has been declared a World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO. The Palace of
Culture, designed by Russian architects and erected as a gift from the Soviet
Union, became even more criticized. At the same stage belong some large
institutions designed by Bohdan Pniewski (1897-1965), among others. National
Bank and the reconstructed Teatr Wielki. Since the 1960s, Warsaw has been
expanded with very large and often criticized residential suburbs in the
modernist spirit, eg. Ursynów.
In the southern surroundings of Warsaw lies the baroque castle Wilanów
('Villa Nova') with Johan Park Sobieski and its associated park facilities.
History
Warsaw, first mentioned in the sources in 1224 as a village emerging around a
castle erected by the Duke of Masovia, was developed through its location at
Wisła to the trading center. When the Masovian prince died, Warsaw was
incorporated in Poland in 1526. Not least the proximity to Lithuania increased
Warsaw's political significance: in 1569 it became the seat of the
Polish-Lithuanian Parliament, and in 1596 it took over Kraków's role as royal
residence city. Thus began an economic and cultural upswing, temporarily
interrupted by Swedish ravages in the mid-1650s and 1702. Since Poland was
divided between the great powers in the late 1700s, Warsaw became the capital of
the Napoleonic city of Warsaw, founded in 1807-15, thereafter Russian-dominated
so-called Congress-Poland.
During the Russian era, Warsaw, which gained its own university in 1816,
served as a rallying point in the struggle for the Polish state's resurrection
and the center of the uprising movement against Russia. Through the rapid
industrialization of the 19th century, Warsaw gained a strong labor movement.
The social and economic transformation continued during the interwar period,
when Warsaw was the capital of the resurrected Poland.
Warsaw was taken by German troops during the First World War. The city was
under German occupation from the beginning of August 1915 until the end of the
war in November 1918. During the war between Poland and Bolshevik Russia
1919-20, the Red Army stood at Warsaw's gates around midsummer 1920, but in the
battle of the city the Poles in August were taken over after the threat of
Soviet occupation was averted.
In September 1939, the city was conquered by German troops, severely injuring
the castle and several churches and palaces. The German occupation especially
affected its many Jewish residents. These were brought together in 1940 in a
ghetto that was destroyed by the Germans after the ghetto uprising in 1943. The
following year, Warsaw became the scene of yet another forcibly rebel (see
Warsaw Uprising ). After World War II, the city was rebuilt as the center of
Communist Poland.
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