Polish Łask Air Base might become a permanent home for the F-22 Raptor jets.
According to the Polish “Rzeczpospolita” Daily, that quotes the U.S. General David W. Allvin, Director, Strategy, and Policy, Headquarters U.S. European Command, the Americans may one day permanently deploy F-22 Raptor jets to Poland.
Rzeczpospolita claims that Allvin came up with an idea of reinforcing the Polish airbases with a U.S. presence instead of establishing a permanent US military infrastructure within the territory of Poland, which may violate the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE).
The idea, already proposed by the Pentagon, needs to be approved by the US Congress now.
Rzeczpospolita speculates that the Raptors may be stationed at Łask Airbase, near Łódź, already being a home for the Polish F-16 fighter jets.
Krzesiny Airbase, located in the vicinity of Poznan is also hosting the Polish Fighting Falcons, however, it is not being considered within the framework of the European Reassurance Initiative, namely it has not been mentioned by the budget documents which define the Pentagon’s FY2017 expenditure in Europe.
In fact, the Pentagon is willing to invest 8.2 million dollars in the airbases infrastructure in Poland: Powidz and Łask airbases, with the latter being the most likely destination of the U.S. stealth jets (provided they will be really more or less permanently based in Poland).
This is also supported by the fact that two Raptors have already made a quick visit to Lask during their first European deployment last year.
Update: although a permanent base for the F-22 in Poland would be the “perfect option,” the stealth aircraft will be rotated in Poland and other Central European countries as part of temporary deployments, at least until the budget will allow a stable presence.
Image credit: Lockheed Martin
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I bet Putin is sh*tting his pants…
Let’s see if this puts some brakes on the Russian aggressive behaviour.
In this very same blog there wae a analise about F-22″threat”to Russia,I suggest you read it
Good point, Petrovic. This is more American aggression.
I’ll have to go read it, but I’ll bet a good argument could be made that the annexation of Crimea into Russia itself is already a violation of CFE limitations. The Russians have probably already ended the treaty. They already effectively ended the IMF treaty as well with their excess of tactical nuclear weapons and development of new delivery systems.
just sell our allies the f-22’s that they want and be done with it.
No, sell the F-35, now we know is capable of dogfighting better than an F-16 at slow speed, it’s a mighty plane you know
They’re not being made anymore.
Hopefully F-22 pundits will realize just how important the F-22 really is, and always was. 185 air frames spread all over the globe, staring down the types of advanced systems it was designed to counter… Traded away at a whim to provide even more funding for a fighter (F-35) that wasn’t ready, still isn’t ready, and by most accounts and program history, won’t be able to face these systems in any confrontation with terrorists we’ve appeased anytime soon.
The point is that anyone that thinks trading away a proven capability for a “PowerPoint hopeful” is a heavy gambler, and not a very smart one at that… The implications are very real when you see the things our F-15s, -16s and -18s would face should these ridiculous arms deals be allowed to continue without so much as a whimper of disapproval to broken violations and bogus deals – That’s a recipe, and not a very good one.