Sweden orders additional missiles for the Patriot air defense system

Sweden wants to buy more missiles from the US for Patriot air defense systems.

The Local writes about it.

The new American missiles were ordered by the Swedish Defense Material Administration.

Sweden ordered the Patriot air defense system in the PAC-3+ version, known in the country as LvS103 (Luftvarnssystem 103/Air defense system 103), from the United States in November 2017, and reached an agreement to purchase it in 2018.

In December 2022, the last of four deliveries of Patriot batteries was completed, marking the end of the first part of the Patriot deal.

Now Sweden has placed another order for new missiles for air defense systems.

According to Christer Mellgren, project manager for Air Defense System 103, the Patriot has been developed to be able to hit pretty much all air targets such as helicopters, airplanes, ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles.

“I cannot go into the number of missiles that we ordered, but it is within the limit approved by the American Congress,” he added.

An initial contract worth $692.9 million for the supply of Patriot air defense systems for the Swedish army was signed with Raytheon in 2018.

According to the Defense Materiel Administration, in total, the Swedish armed forces allocated about 3.2 billion dollars for the deal.

The missiles are the most expensive part of the Patriot system. The U.S. government previously authorized Sweden to purchase up to 300 missiles, but it is not known how many of those have already been ordered.

The delivery of the ordered components of the Patriot air defense system to Sweden began in December 2020.