In northeastern Poland, just a few tens of kilometers from the border with Russia, Americans with Abrams tanks and armored Bradleys lead a NATO battle group ready to intervene in the event of any threat to the alliance. Anti-aircraft defense of the flagship battalion is carried out by Romania with a detachment of soldiers and an armored Cheetah, a self-propelled system with anti-aircraft guns, which became famous this year in the war in Ukraine. HotNews.ro was at the Bemowo Piskie base and learned how the Romanian military trains and fights side by side with the Americans, British, Croats and Poles.

• In northeastern Poland, in Bemowo Piszka, about 70 kilometers as the crow flies from the border with Russia (Kaliningrad) and the Suwalki Corridor, through which the Baltic countries are connected by land to the rest of the Alliance, NATO has deployed a battle group since 2017. The unit, the size of battalion under the leadership of the Americans, but with the military and technical participation of Britain, Croatia and Romania, in addition to the Polish army.
• Romania has participated since the group’s inception, and quotas change every six months. Romania is currently on its 12th rotation and since October, around 100 soldiers from the 288th Air Defense Battalion “Milcov” from Focșani together with an anti-aircraft battery consisting of 7 armored Cheetahperform the tasks of air defense of the NATO battle group.
• Armored Chepard (or Cheetah in German, from the country they come from) are basically tanks weighing around 47 tons, mounted with two 35 mm automatic guns, have a target detection radar and a fire tracking radar, and can be used for both air defense and as well as direct fire on enemy infantry or armored vehicles.
• Ghepard anti-aircraft systems can detect targets on radar at a distance of up to 15 km, targets that can fly at a maximum speed of 300 m/s. The tanks have an effective firing range of about 3.5 km and a rate of fire of about 550 rounds per gun per minute.
• systems Cheetahalthough they have been in development and production since the 80s, they have gained new popularity after showing their usefulness during the war in Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces used them in combat, both against aircraft, especially drones, and even against some cruise missiles
• The anti-aircraft battery of Romanians in the battle group in Poland “is a critical element”, which is said even by the Americans, who appreciate that the Ghepard armored vehicles are a “much higher level asset” for the battalion and that they offer excellent capabilities. “flexibility” of the combat unit. “This is a really great system. High rate of fire, accuracy, lethality, we were very impressed“, said one of the commanders of the tank companies. And he was not the only one who praised the Romanian military.
• What Americans say about Romanians, what they think of Ghepard armored vehicles, how they train with Abrams tanks in the frozen forests at -11 degrees Celsius in northeastern Poland, and other atmospheric elements, in the HotNews.ro video report below: