Sweden buys Piorun air-defence systems from Poland in €274 million deal

Sep 12, 2025 | Business, Defence

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Sweden has reached an agreement to buy Piorun man-portable air-defence systems from their Polish manufacturer, Mesko, for around 3 billion Swedish krona (1.2 billion zloty/€274 million/$321 million).

The deal was concluded at the DSEI defence fair in London and announced on Tuesday – before this week’s incursion by Russian drones into Polish airspace.

Sweden follows countries including the United States, Belgium, Norway and Estonia in purchasing Piorun systems, which have proved a success in Ukraine’s defence against Russia’s invasion.

“Poland is becoming an arms exporter,” declared defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, celebrating the deal with Sweden as “more great news for our defence industry” and “proof that our companies are strengthening their position”. He called Pioruns Poland’s “number one product”.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk declared his “pride” that “one of the flagship products of the Polish arms industry” was being bought by another country.

 

Christer Mellgren of Swedish military procurement agency FMV said that the deal would “significantly contribute to strengthening air defence capabilities”, reports the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

FMV itself described the Piorun system as “easy to transport and operate” and able to “engage various air targets, such as helicopters, planes, and drones”.

In a statement, Mesko, which is part of state-owned defence industry holding company Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa (PGZ), noted that this week’s agreement followed months of negotiations after Sweden issued a letter of intent in March of this year. Delivery is due to begin next year and be completed in 2027.

The Piorun (whose name means “lightning” in Polish) went into service in 2019 as a modernisation of the Grom (meaning “thunder”) man-portable air-defence system. It is designed to shoot down low-flying aircraft such as planes, helicopters and drones.

In 2022, Pioruns were among the large quantities of military equipment Poland provided to Ukraine to help its eastern neighbour defend itself from Russia’s full-scale invasion. The systems were successfully used to take down a variety of Russian aircraft.

In that same year, Mesko announced that the US government had ordered “several hundred” Piorun systems while Norway also put in a similar order.

In May this year, Belgium announced that it would purchase hundreds of the systems while Ukraine itself also revealed that it had requested a €120 million loan from Poland to help fund the purchase of Polish-made weapons, including Pioruns.

Sweden and Poland have sought to forge closer ties in recent years, in particular on defence and security, and especially since Sweden moved to join NATO in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Last November, Poland and Sweden signed a strategic partnership agreement to enhance cooperation on defence, economic development and support for Ukraine. They have also committed to bolstering security around the Baltic Sea and NATO’s eastern flank in response to Russian aggression.

A few months earlier, Poland signed a €1.5 billion deal for the supply of thousands of Carl Gustaf M4 recoilless rifles and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition from Sweden.


Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: MON (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)

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