On August 8, the Swedish Defense Materiel Administration (FMV) signed an agreement with the United States to purchase four Patriot Configuration 3+ Modernized Fire Units equipped with AN/MPQ-65 radars and armed with 100 MIM-104E Guided Enhancement Missile-TMB (GEM-T) missiles and 200 Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) missiles. The estimated $1.13 billion in armaments is scheduled to be operational by 2025.

The acquisition is intended to reinvigorate Sweden’s air defenses following several decades of stagnation in accordance with a U.S.-Swedish defense cooperation agreement signed in June 2016. The FMV selected the Lockheed Martin and Raytheon co-produced system over the Eurosam SAMP/T after both systems’ participation in the Aurora 17 international military exercise in Sweden in September 2017. The choice to acquire Patriot was reportedly guided by Swedish commitment to deepening military-technical cooperation with the United States.

Patriot is a multi-functional system for defense against tactical ballistic missiles as well as aircraft and cruise missiles. Configuration 3+ refers to a suite of upgrades to the entire Patriot system, including but not limited to compatibility with PAC-3 MSE interceptor missiles.