Plan Salamander: Operationalized at Wrocław Airport

does this look like the U.S. is abandoning Europe?

As you all know, I love nothing more than quoting myself. So, Front Porch members of long standing by now can say things from memory: Plan Salamander for the U.S. posture toward Europe that I have been proposing in one form or another for a couple of decades+. Here is just one example from 15 years ago.

…withdraw all maneuver forces from Asia and Europe except for what is needed at Combined Training and Logistics Bases with our most important allies.

No, we don’t leave NATO. I’m a former NATO staff officer who used to give seminars on operational planning at war colleges all over Europe. We just need a 21st century reality check. We still have 80-100,000 personnel there. We could cut that in half and still be fine…once that spot of bother in the east calms down.

So, how would this operationalize? Well, it is taking place right in front of us.

Look again at the map at the top of the post.

Just look at glorious Wrocław (AKA Breslau) right there in the center—no, center-right—of NATO.

When you think of large U.S. airbases in Europe supporting NATO, of course you think of Ramstein. A base so great that it has a band named after it.

If you’re not all that familiar with Ramstein, it is nestled right east of the Franco-German border southeast of Luxembourg. Fairly forward for the Cold War, but now well back from the threat.

About 375 nautical miles to the east of Ramstein, you will find Wrocław (roughly the distance from Washington, DC to Portsmouth, NH). That is 375 nm closer to—yes, say it with me—NATO’s eastern front.

What’s happening there?

Poland will build four US military bases for $500 million, or nearly PLN 2 billion. On January 2, Deputy Minister of Defense Cezary Tomczyk announced that the US government had approved the investment plan. The American bases will be located in Wrocław, Powidz, Łask, and Drawsko Pomorskie. What is being built in Wrocław for the American base for approximately PLN 750 million?

An APOD, or Air Port of Debarkation, is being built in Wrocław, or more understandably, an air unloading base.

As we were informed by Colonel Robert Wójcik, head of the Regional Infrastructure Management Board in Wrocław, in addition to the aforementioned railway siding, the following are being built for the needs of the US Armed Forces air base:

• a parking apron,

• taxiways to the apron,

• an area for the transshipment of hazardous materials and ammunition storage,

• transshipment port facilities,

• a passenger terminal,

• temporary accommodation,

• a canteen,

• a laundry,

• a clinic,

• a sports center,

• a post office,

• an administrative building,

• and a weapons warehouse.

In addition, telecommunications infrastructure will also be built and the anti-terrorism security system will be modernized.

That is the Chamber of Commerce explainer. The Polish government gives a larger overview of the uplift of American forces in Poland.

This is a bit more than the what Plan Salamander outlines, but that was before the Russo-Ukrainian War of 2022. If that ends in our favor, then we can reduce our forces back to the Salamander baseline of training and logistics combined bases…should we need to return.

If you are a logistics geek—which you should be—there is a lot of important and serious work being done in Poland. This will help her security, and that of the NATO alliance.

While some of the—mostly—Western European allies are more interested in drama or reliving their anti-American tendencies from their youth—Poland is a serious nation and a serious leader in Central Europe. They are not playing around.

All civilian airports in Poland must be modernized and adapted for potential use by the country’s military, Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said on Feb. 25.

In comments reported by Polish Radio, Kosiniak-Kamysz said such adaptations would allow them to be used as transport hubs, evacuation points, cargo hubs, or aid points in the event of an emergency.

“Every airport must be adapted and in some way adapted to the possibility of cooperating and working with the military,” he said.

Kosiniak-Kamysz said work was already underway at some major Polish airports — a “cargo hub, together with a railway siding, with fuel supplies” are being built at both Katowice and Wroclaw, and “preparatory processes” are underway at Krakow.

These are the kind of allies Americans have no problem backing up. They are spending more on their defense as a percentage of GDP than the U.S. is. They are doing their part and are worthy of respect.

As a sidenote, Shipmate, if you are on active duty, there are orders to Poland to be had. Talk to your detailer. Go. Take them.