World Bulletin / News Desk

Poland signed on Wednesday a $4.75 billion (3.8-billion-euro) contract to purchase a US-made Patriot anti-missile system, a move that is likely to irk Russia as East-West tensions rise.

The Patriot is a mobile air-defense system made by US defense firm Raytheon with elements from aerospace firms Lockheed Martin and Northrup Grumman. It is designed to intercept tactical ballistic missiles, low-flying cruise missiles and aircraft.

Moscow has complained about the prospect of the deployment of Patriot systems in Poland and Romania, which it says violates a 1987 arms treaty and could be tailored to shoot missiles at Russia.

Tensions with Moscow have been high since the Ukraine crisis and Kremlin's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the current diplomatic spat over the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain has done nothing to calm matters.

NATO ally Romania approved the purchase of a Patriot system worth nearly four billion dollars last November.