US deploys missiles to Poland to train NATO ally

Dozens of American soldiers and a battery of Patriot missiles have arrived in Poland, where they will spend the next two years teaching the Polish military to operate the advanced guided missile system at a base just a few miles (kilometers) from the Russian border. The mission amounts to the most significant deployment ever of U.S. forces to Poland, which once was behind the Iron Curtain but is now an enthusiastic member of NATO. Though Russia had expressed its strong opposition to having a U.S. military installation close to its border, there was no initial reaction from Moscow to the arrival of the missiles - perhaps an indication that it wants to play down the matter after failing to stop the deployment. Andrew Paul, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, said the battery arrived on Sunday at a base in Morag, a town in northeastern Poland just 37 just miles (60 kilometers) from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in January, when the location was announced, that he couldn't comprehend the need "to create the impression as if Poland is bracing itself against Russia."