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A Swedish Armed Forces Patriot (Lvs 103) launcher with its missile canisters raised, on display with an Air Defence Regiment banner

Military & Defense

Sweden to deploy Patriot to Poland from December to protect NATO’s hub for Ukraine

Sweden will deploy a Patriot air defence unit to Poland from December to protect the NATO hub through which military and civilian aid flows to Ukraine, the Swedish government announced on October 6.

GEOPOLITIKI GEOPOLITIKINewsroom
2 min read

Archive photo: a Swedish Armed Forces Patriot system (designated Lvs 103) on display at the national total defence day in Malmö, June 18, 2022. Not from the deployment to Poland. Photo: Rose Abrams, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0. Cropped to 16:9 and converted to WebP.

Sweden will deploy an air defence unit with the Patriot system to Poland from December to protect the NATO supply hub through which military and civilian aid to Ukraine passes. The Swedish government announced the decision on Tuesday, October 6. The unit will operate under NATO Air Command.

The mission adds to the participation of Swedish Gripen fighters, which have been helping to protect the same hub in south-eastern Poland since October. As Stockholm announced on September 30, the aircraft are based mainly in Sweden, use a smaller forward base in Poland and form part of NATO’s Integrated Air and Missile Defence. It is the second time Swedish Gripens have taken on this mission.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Sweden will also make the Patriot air defence system available from December, explaining that the aim is to protect the hub so that equipment reaches Ukraine. Defence Minister Pål Jonson linked the decision to repeated violations of Allied airspace and to Russian attempts to influence support for Kyiv. Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard described the Swedish participation as part of the Alliance’s collective contribution to deterrence and defence.

The government announcement does not state the size of the force. According to Reuters, about 100 military personnel from the air defence unit in Halmstad will be deployed, and the Swedish force will replace the Dutch one, which currently performs the same Patriot mission. Stockholm did not specify how many units of the system it will send. Kristersson said that both the Gripens and the Patriots have the task of protecting the NATO hub at the airport: “The task of both the Gripen deployment and the Patriot deployment is … to protect NATO’s logistics hub in Poland at the airport.”

The deployment of the air defence unit is expected to begin in December.

AIR DEFENCE GRIPEN NATO PATRIOT POLAND SWEDEN Ukraine

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