Poland to unveil US Patriot-missile batteries: ministry

Poland will unveil its first US Patriot-type missiles battery at a military base in the northern town of Morag next week, Poland's Ministry of National Defense said Tuesday.

"Ceremonies associated with the first rotation of the Patriot missile battery will be held Wednesday, May 26, in Morag," ministry spokesman Janusz Sejmej said in a statement.

Contacted by AFP, the ministry's press service declined to provide further details.

The Polish military base at Morag, in the Mazurian Lakes region, is some 250 kilometers north of Warsaw and just 60 kilometers from the border with Russia's Kaliningrad territory.

In February, Poland ratified the so-called SOFA deal on the stationing on its soil of US troops who will crew the surface-to-air Patriot battery. They are also due to train Polish soldiers to use the system.

According to the Xinhua News Agency, eight Patriot launchers and 100 US military personnel are to be stationed at the base.

Poland has repeatedly insisted that the base close to Russia was chosen for its good infrastructure, not for political or strategic reasons.

In September, US President Barack Obama scrapped a plan agreed to a year earlier by his predecessor George W. Bush to install a controversial anti-missile shield system in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Under that now-shelved deal, the US also pledged to help upgrade Poland's national air defenses with Patriot missiles and has stuck to that part of the agreement.

The anti-missile shield plan had enraged Russia, which dubbed the program a menace to its security on its very doorstep, although Washington insisted that the program was meant to ward off a potential long-range missile threat from Iran.

"We are concerned about Washington's absolutely unfounded anti-missile activities in Poland," Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said in April. "It is not clear to us why Patriot missile systems are being deployed near the Russian border."

Agencies