Sweden Signed the Agreement for Patriot Missile Defense System Purchase

By TOC On Aug 13, 2018

WASHINGTON, the U.S. (BulgarianMilitary.com), 13 August 2018, Editor: Stanislava Georgieva, Photo credit: IlGiornale.it

After the negotiations between Sweden’s military logistics organization and Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) with the United States that had started last year, and the authorization of the purchase by the government, on 8th August 2018, the Sweden’s officials finally made an announcement for the signing an agreement of the purchase of Raytheon’s Patriot air and missile defense system from the U.S., learned BulgarianMilitary.com.

Despite the tight budget constraints for defense, the decision was based on Russia’s aggressive behavior, that threatens the European countries and the fact that Sweden existing air defence system cannot shoot down ballistic missiles.

The announcement of the government did not point out the agreed value or the dates of the Patriot missile systems delivery to Sweden, but a notification from U.S. State Department to Congress of the possible weapons sale to Sweden, shows that the approved deal includes four Patriot Configuration 3+ Modernized Fire Units, which is the latest variant of the system, 100 Patriot MIM-104E Guidance Enhancement Missile-TBM missiles, 200 Patriot Advanced Capability-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (PAC-3 MSE) missiles, training and equipment with total value of $3.2 billion.

In November 2017, when the government of Sweden had announced their decision for the purchase of Patriot and had dismissed the French manufacturer Eurosam’s SAMP/T, it stated that they intent to spend about 10 billion krona (U.S. $1.1 billion). But for the cost of the deal, it is normally to be changed in the process of negotiations between the two countries so it is still unclear what will be the final value.

With this sale, Sweden joins Romania and Poland that also had finalized their purchase of Patriot missile defense systems over the past year and ranks among the other European countries that had acquired Patriot, such as Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and Spain. Along with this, Sweden also joins the U.S., Qatar, Japan, Romania, Poland and the United Arab Emirates as a fellow PAC-3 MSE customer.

On 10th August, after the signing of the agreement, Wes Kremer, Raytheon’s president of integrated defense systems, said: “Sweden and 15 countries trust our Patriot system to defend its citizens, military and sovereignty because Patriot has a proven track record of defeating ballistic missiles and a host of other aerial threat,”

This purchase also is part of another big surge of PAC-3 MSE missiles sales in Europe. Due to it, Lockheed plans to double its missile production capacity, particularly abroad, expecting to sell more to countries that own Patriot systems as new PAC-3 MSE customers. The U.S. is also increasing its planned purchase total amount of the most advanced PAC-3 missile configuration.

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