UNITED STATES (VOP TODAY NEWS) – Poland and the United States will sign an agreement that will allow Raytheon to sell its Patriot missile defense system to Warsaw, three sources told Reuters.
Poland has said it plans to spend about $ 7.6 billion on a missile defense project, but the sources said the deal, to be announced next week, may not exceed $ 5.5 billion.
Poland, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), accelerated the pace of modernization of its army following Russia’s annexation of the Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and in response to Moscow’s military and political moves in the region.
The State Department agreed to sell the Patriot system in November while Poland expressed interest in buying eight of these defense systems.
“The agreement will be signed on March 28,” a source close to the defense ministry said. Two other sources confirmed the plan.
Patriot missiles were designed to detect, track and intercept unmanned aerial vehicles, cruise missiles and short-range or tactical ballistic missiles.
The defense ministry in Poland did not answer Reuters’s request for comment. But the defense minister said in late January he expected the deal to be signed by the end of the first quarter.
