Poland rearms — Italy, which regards Russia primarily as an export market and at any rate does not live next door, tends to consider Russian neo-expansionism as a kind of sophomoric prank by Putin: basically stupid, but not the kind of thing that you would let ruin your revenues. The countries of the former Warsaw Pact instead remember very clearly, and are alarmed—as a result, they are rearming.
Poland has recently announced that it will purchase American Patriot missiles for a total value of $7 billion, around 6.2 billion euro. This is a surface-to-air missile meant to defend very large fixed targets, things like military bases and cities. It became well-known when it was used to counter Iraqi Scuds launched against Israel in the 1991 Gulf War. The Patriots are part of a Polish military “shopping list” with a total value of 33 billion euro, which also includes German Leopard II main battle tanks, American F-16 fighters, new Polish-built FFG-7 class frigates and Norwegian Kongsberg costal defense missile.
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