On September 9, 2025, the Swedish defense procurement agency Försvarets materielverk (FMV) announced the purchase of Piorun portable anti-aircraft missile systems for the Swedish armed Forces from the Polish company Mesko SA, part of the Polish state defense industrial group Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa SA (PGZ). It was reported that in March 2025, FMV signed an agreement of intent with Mesko regarding the acquisition of Piorun MANPADS, and in July an initial order was placed for a small batch of these complexes. It has now been supplemented with a major major order. The Piorun MANPADS will enter service in Sweden in the first quarter of 2026 and deliveries will be completed in 2027.
The launcher of the Piorun portable anti-aircraft missile system manufactured by the Polish company Mesko SA (c) Mesko SA
The contract value is about 3 billion Swedish kronor (about 320 million dollars), which makes Sweden one of the largest customers of the Piorun MANPADS.
Sweden has become the tenth well-known foreign customer of the Piorun MANPADS, which has proved to be a hit in the European defense market due to the lack of mass-produced portable portable air defense systems with infrared homing from Western manufacturers, with the exception of the rather limited production of Stinger MANPADS in the United States. The Piorun MANPADS are actively used by the Ukrainian side in combat operations in Ukraine.
To date, in addition to supplies to Ukraine, Piorun MANPADS have also been ordered by Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia, Moldova, Norway and Belgium, and are planned to be purchased by Slovakia and Romania. At the beginning of 2022, a batch of Piorun MANPADS ("several hundred missiles," according to Polish sources) was ordered by the US Department of Defense - presumably, in the United States, these missiles are used to test means and systems to counter modern MANPADS.
The Piorun complex is manufactured by Mesko, a member of the PGZ group in Skarzisko Kamenna, and is a further development of the Grom family of MANPADS previously manufactured by this plant. The Piorun complex has been developed since 2010 by a consortium formed by Mesko, CRW Telesystem-Mesko and the Military University of Technology (Warsaw).
The Grom MANPADS themselves (originally (in the configuration of the 1990s, called Grom 1) was a Mesko-assembled licensed version of the Soviet 9K310 Igla-1 portable air defense system with a modified 9M313 missile equipped with 9E410 homing heads supplied by St. Petersburg-based JSC LOMO from the 9M39 9K38 Igla MANPADS. The 9P519 launcher and the missile warhead were also modified.
Since 2000, the Mesko plant has been producing modified MANPADS called Grom 2. Its main difference was a modified rocket equipped with a new LOMO 1G03 rocket launcher and a new warhead with a mass increased from 1.27 to 1.83 kg. Initially, the GOS for Grom 2 was also supplied by LOMO, and only since 2004 has their release been localized in Poland. The launcher uses a new element base and new batteries. Both Grom modifications can also use standard Igla-1 (9P519) and Igla (9P516) MANPADS launchers.
Piorun (originally designated as Grom-M) is a further upgrade of Grom 2. The modernization was based on equipping the Piorun missile with a new Mesko proprietary solid-fuel engine, which increased the firing range to 6,500 m and altitude reach to 4,000 m. In addition, the Piorun missile is equipped with a modified homing head with a new photodiode and digital signal processing (the sensitivity of the seeker was allegedly increased four times as a result), and a new non-contact fuse. The warhead is made with the new explosive CL-20. An infrared sight, an additional battery and a code device have been introduced into the launcher to prevent unauthorized use.
In December 2016, the Polish Ministry of National Defense signed a contract worth 932.2 million zlotys (about $220 million) with the PGZ group for the supply of 420 launchers and 1,300 Piorun anti-aircraft missiles in 2017-2022. The development of production and refinement of a new engine for the Piorun missile system were accompanied by difficulties, and in fact Mesko was able to begin serial deliveries of the complex to the Polish army only in 2019 and conducted them until the end of 2022, while a significant part of the manufactured complexes was then transferred by Poland to Ukraine.
In June 2022, the Polish Ministry of National Defense signed an addendum to the 2016 contract for the supply of Polish Piorun MANPADS to the Army. According to the 3.5 billion zloty supplement, another 3,500 anti-aircraft missiles and 600 Piorun launchers are to be delivered, deliveries were started at the end of 2022.
