US firm Raytheon has delivered 24 air-to-air missiles to the Czech Republic that will be used to equip combat planes, a defence ministry spokesman said Wednesday.
The medium-range missiles include a radar-guidance system and carried a price tag of 700 million koruna (26.9 million euros, 39.1 million dollars). The delivery was the result of an agreement between the Czech and US governments in 2005.
"We have obtained a weapon that has a deterrent effect, a modern system that is diametrically opposed to the others," Petr Mikulenka, commander of the Caslav air base, said on the www.idnes.cz website.
The missiles will be used to equip supersonic JAS-39 Gripen combat planes, which until now have included Mauser BK 27mm canons and Sidewinder short-range air-to-air missiles.
The 14 Gripens, which the army obtained in 2005, had replaced Soviet-designed MiG-21 jet fighters.
Raytheon's delivery comes as the United States seeks an agreement with Prague on stationing a radar on Czech territory for a US missile defence shield in Europe.
Washington also wants to install 10 interceptor missiles in Poland by 2012 as part of the system, which it says is meant to ward off possible missile attacks by so-called rogue states, notably Iran.
The US plans have angered Russia, which sees the shield as an encroachment in its former sphere of influence that could one day be turned against Moscow.
