Sweden and Romania announced plans to acquire Patriot surface-to-air missile defense system manufactured by U.S. defense contractor Raytheon.
Romania’s Government adopted on Nov. 8 a draft bill for the acquisition of the first Patriot missile system for equipping the Romanian army. The draft law will be sent to the Parliament for approval. The total cost of this endowment program is USD 3.9 billion without VAT. The first system, which is worth USD 765 million, will be purchased by the end of this year.
As for Sweden, it announced on Nov. 7 it has chosen the US Patriot missile defense system over that of a Franco-Italian rival Eurosam’s SAMP/T rival, in an estimated one billion-euro deal. No details of the deal were given by the ministry, but the body in charge of military acquisitions has valued the contract at 10 billion krona (1 billion euros, $ 1.3 billion).
The Patriot is a longer-range truck-mounted air defense system with a firing range of 70 kilometers and a peak altitude of 23 kilometers. It is currently in use in 13 countries.
