Poland Says Pentagon Approved Permanent U.S. Base; White House Decision Due in Early December

Poland says the Pentagon has signed off on a permanent U.S. military base on its soil. The Pentagon has not said the same.

Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz made the claim after meeting Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon on Tuesday, Nov. 10. Asked about the status of the proposal, Hegseth told him, "Everything is going in a good direction," according to Poland's Ministry of National Defense.

Kosiniak-Kamysz took that as a yes. "This means that the permanent presence of U.S. troops in Poland has been greenlit by the Pentagon," he said.

What each side put on the record

The final call belongs to the White House, and Kosiniak-Kamysz said it is expected in early December.

The U.S. account of the meeting is narrower. The Pentagon's readout said Hegseth recognized Poland's leadership in NATO as European allies take on more responsibility for their conventional defense. It said the two men signed a Statement of Intent to strengthen defense industrial cooperation.

The readout did not mention a base. The Defense Department did not respond to a request for comment from Breaking Defense, and no separate public confirmation of a formal approval has surfaced.

The Polish ministry's own release does say Kosiniak-Kamysz thanked Hegseth for implementing Trump's declaration on sending an additional 5,000 troops to Poland. The "green light" language, though, is Warsaw's reading of a short assurance.

"The permanent presence of US troops in Poland is our absolute priority and we will not abandon this matter," Kosiniak-Kamysz said. "We will argue for this to the very end."

The proposal on the table

Warsaw formally proposed a new permanent base in June. A U.S. delegation visited in early September to look at sites.

Four cities are in play: Bydgoszcz, Poznań, Szczecin and Wrocław. All sit west of the Vistula River, which Kosiniak-Kamysz said matches U.S. preferences. Each already has Polish, U.S. or NATO military infrastructure. Bydgoszcz and Szczecin host NATO command facilities, and Poznań is home to the U.S. Army's forward headquarters.

No location or force size has been announced. Kosiniak-Kamysz said working-level teams are still comparing sites and drafting the foundations of an agreement.

He told the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita the installation would need to house up to 25,000 people. That includes about 5,000 U.S. troops plus families and support staff. It means housing, schools and other buildings.

"We are ready," he said. "We have the locations prepared, we are ready to build the infrastructure, and we are ready to secure the funds."

In September he put the infrastructure cost at 15 billion to 17 billion zlotys, roughly $4 billion. Poland has offered to pay it.

Where Trump has been

The president has been encouraging but not committal. In September, Trump wrote that "major progress" was being made toward a U.S. Army base in Poland and that a location would be announced "very soon" if the plan went ahead. In early October, asked about it, he said Washington was "looking at that, and it could happen."

That followed the cancellation earlier this year of a planned armored brigade rotation. Trump then said the U.S. would send an additional 5,000 troops to Poland. He later told Polish President Karol Nawrocki that Washington would send more if asked.

Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said in late September that the two sides were discussing a second U.S. base of brigade size.

What is already there

Roughly 10,000 American troops are in Poland, most on rotational deployments. The U.S. Army opened its first permanent garrison in the country in March 2023 at Camp Kościuszko in Poznań. The site is relatively small.

Warsaw says it wants a mix of about 10,000 rotational troops and 5,000 permanently assigned service members.

Polish officials have lobbied for a permanent American base for years, going back to the George W. Bush administration. The effort has been more public and more intense since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The backdrop is the Pentagon's ongoing review of its force posture in Europe, which the Polish ministry says is still underway.

Hegseth framed Poland as a model on spending. "Whether it's committing to nearly 5 percent of GDP to defense and translating that investment into ready forces and sustained combat power, Poland is building one of the most formidable armies in Europe," he said in a statement.

For U.S. taxpayers, the arithmetic as Warsaw presents it is that the host nation pays for the buildings. Whether the American side agrees to those terms is not on the record. Neither is where the base would go or how many troops would be permanently assigned. Trump's decision is expected in early December, and until then the only public claim of Pentagon approval comes from the Polish side.