Their positions will now be filled by soldiers from other NATO member states, according to officials.
The US Army Europe and Africa Command (USAREUR-AF) announced "the planned repositioning" on Tuesday, saying that both personnel and equipment will be moved to other locations in Poland.
Rzeszów-Jasionka became a key strategic hub shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.
Since then, the airport has served as a central point for transporting international military aid to Ukraine.
Equipment flown in is unloaded and moved to nearby logistics points, then dispatched by truck convoys to the Ukrainian border, some 100 km away.
In addition, damaged Ukrainian military equipment is repaired at one of the local facilities.
The mayor of the local town of Trzebownisko, Sławomir Porada, told Poland's PAP news agency that American soldiers had been received warmly by the local population.
'We welcomed American troops with kindness and openness'
"We welcomed the American troops with kindness and openness, and we will do the same for the allied soldiers who are arriving to replace them," he said.
Porada added that the presence of US troops posed no major difficulties for the community.
"For the past three years, our municipality has been very open and hospitable. American soldiers were a regular sight throughout the area," he said. "We built small cultural connections, inviting them to school events and local festivals. We’ll extend the same invitations to the new allied forces."
Troops from other NATO countries are already present in the area. In recent months, Germany and Norway deployed air defence systems to reinforce the hub as the United States gradually scaled back its presence.
This handover followed an agreement at the NATO summit in Washington in July 2023, which assigned responsibility for defending the airport to NATO as a whole rather than to a single member state.
Earlier in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Rzeszów-Jasionka was protected by US-operated Patriot missile systems.
The first US soldiers landed at Rzeszów-Jasionka on February 5, 2022. A small Beechcraft C-12 Huron aircraft brought in a group of advance personnel and part of the command structure.
A day later, a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III arrived from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, carrying paratroopers from the US 82nd Airborne Division.
Speaking at a press conference held at Rzeszów-Jasionka at the time, division commander Gen. Christopher Donahue said the deployment aimed "to strengthen allied readiness and interoperability across all domains and, if necessary, defend the NATO alliance."
The US 82nd Airborne Division, with a history dating back to World War I, is recognised as the US Army's "most strategically mobile" division.
At the peak of the operation, around 1,700 American soldiers were stationed at Rzeszów-Jasionka. Initially, they were housed in the Podkarpackie Exhibition and Congress Centre (CWK), located across from the airport, where military vehicles were also parked.
The US president at the time, Joe Biden, visited the troops at the CWK in March 2022. Later, the soldiers moved to purpose-built tents set up near the airfield.
With American forces now redeploying, the region is entering a new phase of allied cooperation as NATO maintains its role in securing this crucial military logistics hub.
'It’s merely a relocation to different Polish sites'
Polish President Andrzej Duda and Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz both stressed that the United States is not withdrawing troops from Poland but rather redeploying them to other locations within the country.
"It’s merely a relocation to different Polish sites," Duda told reporters during a visit to Tallinn, Estonia.
Kosiniak-Kamysz said that the shift aligns with decisions made at the NATO summit in Washington, adding that the US troops would "remain in Poland, but in other bases."
Gen. Christopher Donahue, commander of US Army Europe and Africa, said the repositioning could save "tens of millions of dollars per year" for US taxpayers.
Officials underscored that the move had undergone extensive planning, with final decisions confirmed after consultations involving Poland and other NATO partners.
Meanwhile, US broadcaster NBC News reported on Tuesday that Pentagon officials are considering a plan to withdraw 10,000 troops from Eastern Europe, though no final decisions have been made.
(rt/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, europeafrica.army.mil