France will take charge of air defense around Poland's Rzeszow airport, the main hub for Western aid deliveries to Ukraine, starting January 1 as part of a NATO mission, French ambassador to Warsaw Etienne de Poncins said on November 6. He said French systems would work jointly with US-made Patriots, and did not say how long the deployment would last.
Rzeszow is the main hub for Western aid deliveries to Ukraine, so the air defense arrangement there determines which allied systems guard that supply route and when French equipment joins US-made Patriots in the same mission.
France will take charge of air defense in the area around Poland's Rzeszow airport from January 1 as part of a NATO mission, French ambassador to Warsaw Etienne de Poncins told reporters in Warsaw on November 6.
Rzeszow is the main hub for deliveries of Western aid to Ukraine. De Poncins said the deployment marks the first time French equipment will be used for this purpose, and that French air defense systems would work jointly with US-made Patriots, providing an opportunity to test the interoperability of the two systems.
He did not specify how long French protection would remain in place. Dutch Patriot systems are at present protecting Rzeszow-Jasionka airport, and Sweden will deploy its systems in December, according to the ambassador.
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