The Polish army present manages almost a 1000 military complexes and more than 25 1000 buildings. Although the number of investments and expenditure on infrastructure has increased rapidly in the last decade, the scale of needs remains enormous. MON estimates the value of urgent works at PLN 20 billion. In this context, the thought of building 1 state office raises serious doubts in the military.
The state of infrastructure at the disposal of the Ministry of Defence and the General Staff of the Polish Army summed up during the gathering of the Subcommittee on Social Affairs in the Army on Wednesday 11 March Brig-Gen Jacek Sankowski, manager of the MON Infrastructure Department. From the data presented, the scale of the immovable property of the Polish Army has increased importantly over the last 10 years.
Increase in investment in military infrastructure
In 2015, there were 852 military complexes in the records. By the end of 2025, this number had increased to 982. At the same time, the area of land utilized by the military exceeded 225,000 ha, which means an increase of over 18% compared to a decade ago. There are presently 25 146 buildings in these areas with a full usable area of about 12.3 million m2 and a cobatura of 68.6 million m3.– I estimation that the method condition of the facilities is fundamentally 30–32 percent, adequate in 44 percent, unsatisfactory in 24 percent – said Gen. Sankowski.
A large part of the WP's land assets are training and forestry areas utilized by the military. The second presently occupy 176 1000 ha. 10 years ago, it was about 158,000 ha. The fields on the ground cover 70,000 ha, of which nearly 50,000 ha are besides forest areas. In total, there are 20 training courses with an area of about 155 000 ha and 75 exercise squares covering over 17 000 ha. The improvement of training infrastructure was accompanied by investments in fresh facilities. Between 2015 and 2020, 559 fresh military buildings and facilities were put into service and 193 were rebuilt or thoroughly upgraded.
Jumping growth investment in military infrastructure you can see especially in the MON's financial plans. In 2015, the yearly infrastructure investment plan was about PLN 1.4 billion. 10 years later, at the end of 2025, this amount increased to PLN 6.8 billion. As General Sankowski stressed, specified a crucial increase is straight linked to the changes in geopolitical situation and dynamic method modernization of the Polish army.
– The jump is big, but besides the needs are immense – the manager of the department appointed. He added that further backing of military infrastructure was needed in many respects. “For today, about 700 tasks are urgently needed for nearly PLN 20 billion, which in the context of the discussion on the office may be important,” the manager assessed.
In the area of Warsaw itself, as explained by Brig. Gen. Arkadiusz Mikołajczyk, general counsellor of the head of SGWP, 49 military complexes are located. The full office area of these facilities is about 120 1000 m2. Additionally, the military has 3 plots with a full area of 4 hectares in closed areas in downtown. – In Warsaw we besides have problems with these buildings being old. Infrastructure requires large financial investments – explained Gen. Mikołajczyk.
The Pentagon over the Vistula? The army says carefully
At the beginning of the year, the concept of building the alleged office of the Polish Republic, i.e. a large administrative and command complex focusing on MON, SGWP and another institutions related to State security, appeared in the public space. The project, modelled on the American Pentagon, promotes Marcin Ociepa, MP of the PiS from the OdNowa Association. According to this vision, 1 place would include: the center of analysis of CBRN threats (chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear), underground shelters or medical facilities in the form of a hospital.
However, the military approaches this thought with a large reserve. Gen. Mikołajczyk noted that there is presently no authoritative concept of building specified an object. – Of course, discussions are ongoing, but given the current situation and the lessons learned from ongoing conflicts, especially Ukraine, we are convinced that building specified a Pentagon from the point of view of peace is right, but from the point of view of war could bring us more problem than benefits – he said.
The conclusions of the analysis of modern conflicts lead the military to a different concept. alternatively of 1 large command center, a strategy of distributed management stations is preferred. This will make it hard for the opponent to paralyze the command strategy with 1 precise cloud. – As it is happening present in Ukraine – said Gen. Mikołajczyk.
At the same time, he added that the Ministry of Defence is presently focusing primarily on the construction of infrastructure for modern military equipment coming to Poland and the improvement of a network of ammunition warehouses. Military evaluation requires advanced level of protection, impact-resistant facilities, and equipped with modern communications systems, but geographically distributed and connected into 1 network.
– We request specified centres (as the office – ed.), but we are more inclined to go into a distributed steering strategy and build full secured, functional and impact-resistant objects, but on a smaller scale – the attention was drawn to Gen. Mikołajczyk.
He added that it is crucial to guarantee that these fresh command buildings are connected by a safe network of communication with another centres, both in Warsaw and throughout Poland. In practice, this means investing not only in the facilities themselves, but besides in ICT infrastructure, communication and safety systems.
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