Germany is seeking to purchase Piorun man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS) from Poland to transfer them to Ukraine as military aid, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said, according to Defence24.
Tusk said Germany has shown strong interest in Poland’s Piorun systems. A portion would go to Ukraine’s Armed Forces, and in the future the systems would also enter service with the Bundeswehr. He did not specify how many units Berlin plans to send to Kyiv. According to the Polish prime minister, Germany is not the only country interested in Piorun; several others have also expressed interest.
Belgium, for example, is looking to buy 200–300 Piorun systems. Brussels and Warsaw have already signed a document outlining their intentions.
The Polish Army adopted the PPZR Piorun in 2019. It was developed by Poland’s Mesko and CRW Telesystem-Mesko with support from the Military University of Technology, building on experience from the PPZR Grom program.
Piorun is a shoulder-fired air-defense system capable of downing aircraft, helicopters and UAVs at ranges from 400 meters to 6.5 kilometers, and at altitudes of roughly 10 meters to 4 kilometers. The system weighs 16.5 kg, with an overall length of 1.6 m. The missile is 1.6 m long, 72 mm in diameter, weighs 10.5 kg, and carries a 1.82 kg warhead.
The system uses a new Polish cooled seeker and a digital control unit, improving effectiveness. It can engage aerial targets with low thermal signatures and offers enhanced resistance to countermeasures.
Poland’s Piorun entered service with Ukraine’s military in 2022 and has since proven highly effective in combat, helping shoot down numerous Russian aerial targets.
