Working remotely has been a common trend in the civilian workplace since the global pandemic shut the world down in 2020 and the Army has apparently found a way for soldiers to work remotely as well.
On August 14th, during the National Defense Industrial Association Michigan Chapter’s Ground Vehicle Systems Engineering and Technology Symposium and Modernization Update, Army officers spoke about their roles in supporting the war in Ukraine.
Col. John Cooper, acting executive director of Army Contracting Command, said they were “heavily involved” in refurbishing “a lot of equipment that ultimately went to Ukraine.”
“There was a contract involved there, multiple entities — the trucks, the Bradleys, all of that came through our office. We provided a supporting role to help deliver that system to wherever it was going,” he said.
He said the Army Contracting Command also plays a “significant role” in maintaining and repairing the tanks and infantry vehicles supplied to Ukraine.
The Army offers tele-maintenance to Ukraine from Poland, “communicating with Ukrainian soldiers forward in Ukraine to repair whatever tank, Bradley, multitude of systems,” he said, according to National Defense Magazine.
Formerly known as Army Field Support Battalion-Mannheim, the battalion was re-designated to Army Field Support Battalion-Poland in 2024 when it moved operations from the Coleman Army Prepositioned Stocks-2 worksite in Mannheim, Germany, to the new location in Powidz, Poland.
“The battalion is charged with providing and coordinating receipt, transfer, storage, and maintenance of APS to enable commanders to conduct unified action and the full range of military operations in support of U.S. Army Europe and Africa,” their website states.
The “NATO-funded project and the most significant single infrastructure endeavor by NATO in the past 30 years.”
The Powidz APS-2 infrastructure includes a 650,000-square feet humidity-controlled warehouse, a vehicle maintenance facility, and 58,000 square feet of munitions storage.
It was designed to reduce deployment timelines, improve deterrence capabilities, and provide additional combat power for contingency operations -such as supporting the war in Ukraine.
When fully stocked it can hold up to 5,000 items, including M1A2 tanks, M2 Bradley fighting vehicles, M109 Paladin self-propelled howitzers.
“The site will allow the Army to quickly project combat power to NATO’s Eastern Flank, drastically reducing the timeline associated with deploying large quantities of equipment from the U.S. to Europe,” the Army said in June.