Two US ships with marines on board arrive in Poland

Two American landing ships with marines on board arrived in Poland, Dziennik.pl publication says.

"USS Gunston Hall and USS Kearsarge are mooring in the ports of the Tricity (Gdansk, Gdynia, Sopot)", the publication said.

According to the newspaper, on Wednesday morning, September 14, USS Kearsarge landing ship entered the port of Gdynia and moored at the French Embankment.

According trojmiasto.pl, the ship will stay in Gdynia until next Monday to replenish supplies. At the same time, USS Kearsarge replaced the USS Guston Hall at the French Embankment on Wednesday, which departed to the port of Gdansk on Tuesday and moored in the free customs zone (WOC) in the New Port, dziennik.pl said.

The Wasp-class landing ship USS Kearsarge is the flagship of the US 22nd Marine Expeditionary Force. She is 257 meters long and 60 meters wide and can travel at a speed of 22 knots. The ship is armed with standard Wasp-class weaponry of a multipurpose amphibious assault ship. The crew of the ship counts more than 2,000 people.

The USS Gunston Hall landing ship, with a crew of 413, can accommodate 402 Marines and is also equipped with landing craft or landing hovercraft. The ship has a helipad at the stern.

Defense24.pl website said that there are groups of marines on board the two ships. The marines constantly exercise to improve their physical shape to be ready for possible actions. Ships like USS Kearsarge have never entered the Baltic Sea before, the website said.

In late June, NATO leaders agreed on a plan to build-up the forces of the alliance in the east by 2023 against the backdrop of the crisis in Ukraine. NATO announced that it would increase high readiness forces to more than 300,000 in the near future on the eastern flank.

US President Joe Biden, in turn, announced an intention to establish permanent headquarters of the US Fifth Army Corps in Europe in Poland.