WARSAW - Poland signed the largest arms procurement deal in its history on Wednesday, agreeing with the United States to buy Raytheon Co’s<RTN.N> Patriot missile defense system for $4.75 billion in a major step to modernize its forces against a bolder Russia. “It is an extraordinary, historic moment; it is Poland’s introduction into a whole new world of state-of-the-art technology, modern weaponry, and defensive means,” President AndrzejDuda said during the signing ceremony. NATO member Poland has accelerated efforts to overhaul its aging weaponry following Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014 and the resurgence of Russian military and political assertiveness towards its neighbors. Two-thirds of Polish weaponry dates from the 20th century Cold War era when the country was in the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact.
Russian officials were not immediately available to comment. Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov told the state-run Sputnik news website in November that Patriot deployments were part of a U.S. plot to surround Russia with missile defense systems “under the pretext of mythical threats to security”.
This month, Russian President Vladimir Putin unveiled an array of new nuclear weapons, saying they could hit almost any point in the world and evade a U.S.-built missile shield. (Reuters)