Poland joins Pentagon’s counter-drone marketplace amid unexpected US deployment cancellation

Even as the Army abruptly cancelled a planned deployment to Poland earlier this year, the service is continuing to expand military cooperation with the country through the Pentagon’s counter-drone initiative, the Army announced on Wednesday.

The service touts the program as a way to help Washington and its allies purchase defense technology faster, as the U.S.-managed marketplace connects partner nations with emerging technology in an attempt to speed up slow procurement systems that have often lagged behind ever-changing threats.

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll on Thursday posted a photo on social media with Poland’s Deputy Minister of National Defense, Paweł Zalewski, as he signed a statement of intent to join the initiative.

Australia and South Korea also agreed to enter the marketplace, the Army said this week, joining the United Kingdom and Romania as participants.

The platform allows allies access to interoperable capabilities and is run by the Pentagon’s Joint Interagency Task Force 401, which was established in 2025 to streamline counter-drone procurement.

“This partnership gives our allies and partners direct access to proven counter-drone technologies as we continue to expand the marketplace,” Maj. Matt Mellor, who is the lead acquisitions specialist for the task force, said in a statement. “Our mission includes working with international partners to aggregate demand for counter-drone capabilities,” he said.

The news comes as questions linger over the service’s decision to shelve a planned rotational deployment to Poland — a NATO ally bordering Ukraine and Belarus — shortly after the U.S. announced it was withdrawing 5,000 troops from Germany, another NATO ally.

The changes have sparked condemnation from members of Congress, who have criticized the message such a change in force posture sends to allies amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Eve Sampson is a reporter and former Army officer. She has covered conflict across the world, writing for The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Associated Press.

尽管陆军今年早些时候突然取消了向波兰部署的计划，但陆军周三宣布，该军种正通过五角大楼的反无人机计划继续扩大与该国的军事合作。

该机构称该计划旨在帮助华盛顿及其盟友更快地采购国防技术，因为美国管理的市场将伙伴国家与新兴技术联系起来，试图加快缓慢的采购系统，这些系统往往落后于不断变化的威胁。

周四，陆军部长丹·德里斯科尔在社交媒体上发布了一张与波兰国防部副部长帕维尔·扎列夫斯基的合影，照片中他签署了一份加入该倡议的意向声明。

美国陆军本周表示，澳大利亚和韩国也同意进入该市场，与英国和罗马尼亚一起成为参与者。

该平台使盟友能够获得互操作能力，由五角大楼的联合跨部门特遣部队 401 运营，该部队成立于 2025 年，旨在简化反无人机采购流程。

“随着我们不断扩大市场，这项合作将使我们的盟友和伙伴能够直接获得成熟的反无人机技术，”特遣部队首席采购专家马特·梅勒少校在一份声明中表示。“我们的任务包括与国际伙伴合作，共同扩大对反无人机能力的需求，”他说道。

此前不久，美国宣布从另一个北约盟国德国撤出 5000 名士兵，而军方随后搁置了原计划向波兰（与乌克兰和白俄罗斯接壤的北约盟国）轮换部署的计划，这引发了人们对军方决定的质疑。

这些变化引发了国会议员的谴责，他们批评在俄罗斯卷入乌克兰战争之际，这种改变武力部署向盟友发出的信号。

伊芙·桑普森是一名记者，也是一名前陆军军官。她曾报道过世界各地的冲突，为《纽约时报》、《华盛顿邮报》和美联社撰稿。