Reuters:
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Sweden will close a deal in the next few weeks with U.S. arms maker Raytheon Co (RTN.N) to buy the Patriot air defense missile system as it modernizes its armed forces amid heightened tensions with Russia.
Moscow’s brief war with Georgia in 2008 and its annexation of the Crimea Peninsula six years later has pushed Sweden, not a NATO member but with close ties to the alliance, to rebuild its armed forces after decades of neglect.
“We are now done negotiating with the U.S. about Patriot and will now ask the government’s permission to sign the contract,” said Joakim Lewin, head of the Army Design Office at the Swedish Materiel Administration (FMV), which procures and maintains equipment for the military.
