Soldiers of the 44th Light Infantry Battalion of the Defense Forces Territorial will be stationed in Ełk. The Chief of the General Staff signed on April 11 an official implementing decision on the matter. It will be a battalion formulated mainly from Elczan. The headquarters of WOT in Ełk will be located at Kościuszki Street, while training and logistics facilities will be located at ul. Lower, i.e. in military facilities. The head of civil-military cooperation will be Mrs. Agnieszka Pasko, director of the Uniformed Education Center in Ełk.

In Ełk there are two schools that have classes military, i.e. the Uniform education center and in the Improvement Team Professional. There are also pro-defense organizations, m.in Shooting Unit 1007 and scout organizations. The creation of the WOT battalion will have the importance of the development of passion, as well as the implementation of vocations in military service.

The long-term history of Ełk is connected with the army. In the years 1967-2000, the only Centre of Excellence in the country operated in the city. Specialists of the Engineering Forces. In the last two years, it was established and a specialized Sapper Company located directly subordinate to the commander brigades in Olsztyn. Since its commencement by the Ministry of National Defence work on the construction of the Territorial Defense Forces, the president of Ełk Tomasz Andrukiewicz undertook efforts to create one of the branches in the city. In the letter of 24 January 2017 from the President of Ełk Tomasz Andrukiewicz addressed to the Minister National Defense we read:

" The same the location of the city, which is located in the north-eastern part of the Polish, at the junction of the routes leading to the border crossings with Lithuania, Russia and Belarus, near the so-called "Suwałki Isthmus" is an important argument, to so that a branch of WOT would be established in Ełk. In addition, Elk is the third largest the city of the voivodship, lying on important communication routes: implemented currently via Baltica and the planned national route from Warsaw via Bialystok to Lithuania (Rail Baltica)."

The first trainings are to start in May-June. In turn, in July in Ełk is planned to organize an oath Military. The 44th Battalion will consist of three companies, consisting of about 60 professional soldiers and about 500 WOT soldiers will enter.