US Air Force shifts refueling mission from Germany to Poland

JENNIFER H. SVAN

STARS AND STRIPES • April 24, 2023

Illinois Air National Guard members refuel a KC-135 Stratotanker at Powidz Air Base in Poland in 2021. U.S.-based guardsmen and reservists are now deployed to Europe, flying KC-135 missions from Powidz. (Brian Ellison/U.S. Air National Guard)

The Air Force is moving its refueling mission from Germany to Poland for the foreseeable future, in a move aimed at reinforcing NATO’s eastern flank, the Air Force said.U.S. Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard tankers most recently flew from Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany as part of Copper Arrow, an ongoing operation to boost air refueling capacity on the Continent.

In the coming months, 19 tanker units based stateside are slated to come to the west-central Polish town of Powidz, with several planned operations supporting NATO activities, U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa said in a statement.

The aircraft in Powidz could be tasked with refueling combat jets, including the world’s most advanced fighter jet, the F-35A Lightning II, potentially extending the range of NATO missions. The Dutch air force recently deployed eight of the planes to Malbork Air Base in Poland.

The move “signifies U.S. European Command’s ability to rapidly deploy large combat-credible forces and equipment throughout Europe,” USAFE-AFAFRICA said Thursday in the statement.

The Air Force tankers are part of Detachment 1 and could include KC-135 Stratotankers, KC-10 Extenders or the Air Force’s newest tanker, the KC-46 Pegasus.

Tankers began flying from Powidz in early March, and on April 13, a Pegasus from the 931st Air Refueling Wing at McConnell Air Base, Kan., refueled Finnish air force F/A-18s, USAFE-AFRICA said last week.

The mission relies on units from the U.S. that send their tankers to Europe to support USAFE operations, the command said.

The stateside tankers “travel with Air Reserve Component members who voluntarily commit to rotations in the European” theater, said Col. Gary Dodge, Air National Guard adviser to the USAFE-AFAFRICA commander.

The 603rd Air Operations Center at Ramstein Air Base oversees the mission from Germany, from vetting applicants to providing command and control, USAFE-AFRICA said.

American forces have surged into Europe since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Since the start of the war, the Pentagon has increased the number of U.S. troops on the Continent from about 80,000 to more than 100,000.

Over 10,000 of those forces are on Polish bases, U.S. ambassador to Poland Mark Brzezinski said in the Air Force statement.

The eastward surge is another example of U.S. efforts to create a durable presence in the former Warsaw Pact country, a vital NATO member that shares a border of more than 300 miles with Ukraine.

A month ago, the U.S. officially stood up its first permanent base in the country. U.S. Army Garrison Poland in Poznan, about 60 miles west of Powidz, will support the Army’s V Corps, which oversees NATO missions in the east. The corps also has a forward headquarters on the garrison.