Poland to Host Military Drills with NATO Troops

In September, Poland will host the Iron Defender military exercises, involving 34,000 Polish and allied soldiers from all branches of the armed forces. These exercises are the biggest test for Polish military personnel this year, according to the General Staff of the Polish Army.

The Gaze reports on it, referring to Polskie Radio.

It is noted that the manoeuvres, which have not been held in Poland for years, are planned in the format of divisional exercises. These are exercises in which most of the units and soldiers belonging to a large tactical unit - a division - take part.

The exercises have been codenamed ‘Iron Defender’ due to the participation of soldiers from the 18th Division, also known as the ‘Iron Division’.

According to a statement by the General Staff, approximately 34,000 soldiers equipped with about 600 pieces of equipment, both Polish and allied, including from the NATO Enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) battlegroup stationed in Ożarów, are to take part in the exercises.

The soldiers will represent all branches of the Armed Forces, including the Air Force, Navy, Special Forces and Territorial Defence Forces. The General Staff emphasised that the exercises are defensive in nature and will take place on land, in the air and in the Baltic Sea.

‘The soldiers will jointly test their ability to deter and effectively defend Polish territory,’ the statement said.

The main goal of the exercises is to test the operational compatibility of the Polish Armed Forces in a multi-domain target environment, i.e., the ability of the land, air, and naval forces and the Cyber Defence Forces to cooperate effectively. In addition, soldiers will have the opportunity to apply the lessons learned during Russia's war against Ukraine in practice, as well as to use and test new Armed Forces equipment.

The General Staff of the Polish Army assured that these exercises are not directed against any country.

‘Their goal is to demonstrate the unity, professionalism and consistent improvement of the combat capabilities of NATO allies,’ the General Staff said in a statement.

They added that the Iron Defender exercises are proof that the Polish Armed Forces are undergoing a dynamic transformation, building up their defence capabilities and remaining a key element of the security system in Central and Eastern Europe.

At the beginning of this year, Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Army General Wiesław Kukula noted that one of the tasks planned for the early autumn exercises is to check the extent to which units of the 18th Mechanised Division, which includes most of the military units deployed east of Warsaw, have already successfully implemented modern equipment, in particular M1 Abrams tanks.

As The Gaze reported earlier, Belarus has announced that it does not rule out a partial change in the location of the “Zapad (West) 2025” military exercises, which it had promised to move deeper into the country, blaming Poland and Lithuania for their allegedly aggressive behaviour.