Reuters reports:

WARSAW (Reuters) – 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 Andrzej Duda said during the signing ceremony. Polish President Andrzej Duda signed a $4.75 deal with the US to face the Russian threat

The nation started to revamp its armed forces when Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine in 2014, given that the majority of Poland’s weaponry dates back to the Cold War. Much of Poland's military equipment currently dates back to the era when communist Poland was in the Moscow-led Warsaw Pact, says the BBC's Adam Easton in Warsaw. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov told 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”. The Patriot deal follows Monday's expulsion of more than 100 Russian diplomats by the United States and a score of other Western countries including Poland in response to a nerve toxin attack on a former Russian spy in Britain, the most sweeping action against Moscow since the heights of the Cold War. In February, President Vladimir Putin touted new weapons in Russia's nuclear arsenal, including a new intercontinental ballistic missile which he claimed could hit anywhere in the world, and evade U.S.-built missile defenses. The Patriot deal came as a relief for Poland amid a rise in tension with Washington, its main NATO ally, over legislation that Warsaw introduced in January to impose jail terms for any suggestion of Poland's complicity in the Nazi Holocaust. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said the Patriot agreement showed “solidarity and cooperation” with the United States and other NATO countries. Wednesday's deal is for the delivery in 2022 of two Patriot system batteries manufactured by Raytheon, each coming with two fire units consisting of one sector AN/MPQ-65 radar and four M903 launchers. Ambassador Paul Jones called the deal a milestone that brings the NATO member into a family of 15 countries that rely on the Patriot system for their airspace security. Romania agreed in November to buy Patriots and the US government has also approved the sale of the weapons system to Sweden.
Poland signs a deal with the United States to buy a US$4.75 billion Patriot missile system.