The Romanian army received its first shipment of U.S. Raytheon Patriot surface-to-air missiles on Thursday; part of an effort to bolster its defenses that has annoyed Russia.

“Romania has just become a safer nation by hosting these Patriot missiles on its territory. Romanian citizens are now better protected,” Prime Minister Ludovic Orban said at the receiving ceremony, at a firing range on the Black Sea shore.

The missiles will form part of an integrated air defense system comprising newly acquired F-16 fighter jets, as Romania brings its obsolete military equipment up to NATO standards and phases out outdated communist-era MiGs…

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