Polish Armed Forces

Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland (Siły Zbrojne Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej, abbreviated SZ RP; popularly, Wojsko Polskie, abbreviated WP—roughly, the "Polish Military") are the national armed forces of Poland. The name has been used since the early nineteenth century, but can also be applied to earlier periods.

The Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland are the Wojska Lądowe (Land Forces), Marynarka Wojenna (Navy), Siły Powietrzne (Air Force) and Wojska Specjalne (Special Forces) and are under the command of the Ministerstwo Obrony Narodowej (Ministry of National Defense).

From 2002 until 2014, Polish military forces were part of the Coalition Forces that participated in the ISAF mission in Afghanistan led by NATO. Poland's contribution to ISAF was the country's largest, since its entrance into NATO.

Polish forces also took part in the Iraq War. From 2003 to 2008, Polish military forces commanded the Multinational Division (MND-CS) located in the South-Central Zone of Iraq. This zone was populated by about 5 million Iraqis, and covered an area of over 65,632 km². The division was made up of troops from 23 nations and totaled as many as 8,500 soldiers.

Armed forces

The armed forces of a country are its government-sponsored defense, fighting forces, and organizations. They exist to further the foreign and domestic policies of their governing body and to defend that body and the nation it represents from external and internal aggressors. In broad usage, the terms "armed forces" and "military" are often treated synonymously, although in technical usage a distinction is sometimes made in which a country's armed forces may include both its military and other paramilitary forces. Armed force is the use of armed forces to achieve political objectives.

The study of the use of armed forces is called military science. Broadly speaking, this involves considering offense and defense at three "levels": strategy, operational art, and tactics. All three levels study the application of the use of force in order to achieve a desired objective.

Organization

In most countries the basis of the armed forces is the military, divided into basic military branches. However, armed forces can include other paramilitary structures.

Polish Land Forces

The Land Forces (Wojska Lądowe) are a military branch of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland. They currently contain some 65,000 active personnel and form many components of European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military history stretches back for hundreds of years – since the 10th century (see List of Polish wars and History of the Polish Army), but Poland's modern army was formed after 1918.

History

1918–1938

When Poland regained independence in 1918, it recreated its military which participated in the Polish-Soviet War of 1919–1921, and in the two smaller conflicts ( Polish-Ukrainian War (1918–1919) and the Polish-Lithuanian War (1920)).

Initially, right after the First World War, Poland had five military districts (1918–1921):