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Territorial Defense Forces
Obrony Terytorialnej

Polish Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz on 25 April 2016 signed an official document paving the way to the creation of a new “territorial defence” force - a move he said was needed in the face of the “aggressive intentions” of Russia.

Macierewicz said that paramilitary organizations would be an integral part of the “territorial defence” force, adding that the latter would ultimately comprise up to 35,000 people. Macierewicz said that according to plan the first three territorial defence brigades were to be operational at the turn of 2017, with the force expected to embrace the whole country by 2019. Poland's territorial defence force was to comprise 17 brigades, each numbering 1,500 to 2,500 troops.

Macierewicz said new territorial defence units were needed because Poland “is threatened by the actions of our north-eastern neighbour Russia, which makes no secret of its aggressive intentions and which systematically, at least since 2008, has been undertaking action aiming to destabilize the peaceful order in Europe, systematically directly endangering Poland and our immediate neighbours." Macierewicz added that the new force was linked to the need for “patriotic education”.

The Polish military plans to recruit civilian volunteers to form a National Guard-style paramilitary force aimed at preparing for a "hybrid war" with Russia, the Polish Defense Ministry. The first batch of volunteers would be recruited in September 2016. The state will pay each volunteer 500 zlotys (about €125 a month), and they will undergo regular weekend training. The volunteers will be commanded by professional soldiers.

"The territorial defense force is our response to the threat associated with hybrid warfare," Grzegorz Kwasniak, the Defense Ministry official responsible for creating the new group, said at a press conference on 02 June 2016. Specifically, each of Poland's 16 voivodeships (regions) will receive a brigade of new troops, with the eastern voivodeship of Mazowieckie receiving two brigades.

The 1955-1965 Polish Armed Forces Development Plan envisaged the establishment of National Territorial Defence Forces which later on became an important part of the PAF. The National Territorial Defense Forces (OTK - Obrony Terytorialnej ) were founded in 1965 to help defend Polish territory when the Polish People's Army was engaged under Warsaw Pact obligations outside the country. Although their primary mission was defending the homeland, the OTK also had the Warsaw Pact mission of transporting Soviet forces and supplies across Poland in wartime. Formed mainly from units shifted from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the OTK went under a new Inspectorate for National Territorial Defense in the Ministry of National Defense. The OTK included the Internal Defense Forces (Wojska Obrony Wewnetrznej -- WOW, the largest unit) and several smaller territorial defense units. Immediately after World War II, the WOW had suppressed the Home Army, which had been loyal to the London government-in- exile; the WOW had also played a large part in suppressing the Poznan workers in 1956.

The WOW, which totaled 65,000 troops in 1982, were equipped as mechanized infantry units, including tanks. The component units, which were organized at district level, had the missions of engaging hostile troops on Polish territory and eliminating local underground elements. The units were to receive the same individual training as regular ground forces, although they did not participate in large-scale coordinated exercises.

By 1990 the OTK was not a credible military force. The organization included many nonmilitary patriotic and social groups, such as the boy scouts, and many military retirees found soft assignments in OTK units. Although the force had a military commander, it was not under direct control of the Ministry of National Defense. By 1991 budget cuts were reducing personnel significantly, and plans called for transforming many OTK units into civil defense formations that would support production and service in the civilian economy. The OTK units remaining armed and attached to districts as regional defense forces would count as part of the ground forces' planned mid-1990s allotment of about 150,000 troops. They would function as cadre units reinforcing operational ground forces within their territorial boundaries.

Taken after 1989, the efforts of theorists and the headquarters assumptions led to the adoption of the national defense strategy document with operational forces [wojsk operacyjnych] and the forces and means of territorial defense. Despite the economic difficulties the Polish armed forces began a series of conceptual projects, organizational and training for the construction of the OT. In place of closed units operational forces, military police and air force training center set up three OT brigades: 1 Gdansk, 2 Minsk Mazowiecki, 3 Zamosc), and also formed the seeds of subsequent brigades: Kielce, Wroclaw, Opole. Training in the National Defence Academy staff included commanding OT forces. A 2-year experiment was conducted in transforming the Provincial Military Chiefs of Staff into military authorities in the territorial authority of command. The result was 16 Regional Military Chiefs of Staff - the military so far ahead of the subsequent administration reform that reduced the number of provinces.

District Military Command conducted exercises at improving regional and territorial defense, and its interaction with cell defense (such as exercise, "Lower Silesia 1996", "Amethyst 1997" in the Pomeranian OW). It is worth recalling that during the famous admission of managerial staff in HR 1994 (Drawsko lunch) presents a supreme state authorities and staff to operate virtually commanding elements of the 1 OT troops battalion (with 1 BOT Gdansk) and Szczecin RSzW. It is also worthwhile to recall that at the same time worked on the theory of OT, instructions, training publications.

In 1997 came the idea of building the armed forces is commonly called "Army of 2012". SG Management HR - author of the concept - not taken seriously OT and demonstrated a lack of understanding for this element of the defense system of the State. The whole vision of the OT troops confined to the tasks assigned to them: support, enhancing the creation of conditions for operational forces. Territorial Defence Brigades [ Brygada / Brygady Obrony Terytorialnej] was treated as a motorized infantry unit. The OT brigades General Staff wanted to maneuver after the military districts as if they were operational forces. There was no provision for the creation of the OT Brigade to defend the areas of strategic or operational, for example, for Warsaw, Szczecin, Rzeszow or Przemysl. Compromising the proposed number of troops was 5,000 in time of peace and about 80,000 at the time of war.

The 18 Bialystok Territorial Defence Brigade [18th Bialostocka Brygada Obrony Terytorialnej] was formed on the basis of 18 Mechanized Brigade [18 Brygady Zmechanizowanej], which as a result of the restructuring of the Armed Forces ceased to exist. Until a solution was stationed in the barracks street cavalry. The essential core of the current unit consists of command, staff, logistics, battalion headquarters, battalion of motorized, reconnaissance company of the security unit and logistics. Minister of National Defence in May 1995 gave the brigade the name of Marshal Edward Rydz-Smigly and the name of "Bialystok" and adopted the heritage and traditions of the famed Polish Army units: 10 Lithuanian Lancers, 18 th Infantry Division in France, organized by General Jozef Haller and 3 Regiment mechanized, which established on the basis of 18 Mechanized Brigade.