Piorun

The shoulder-fired missile that became a star of the war in Ukraine — Poland's Piorun ("Thunderbolt") is a modernized, sharper-eyed descendant of the Soviet Igla that has knocked Russian jets, helicopters, cruise missiles and drones out of the sky, earned a stream of viral kill videos, and won orders from the US Army. A cheap, mobile, hard-to-suppress answer to the low-altitude air threat, it has become one of the most sought-after man-portable air-defence weapons in the world.

Overview

The Piorun (also designated GROM-M) is a Polish man-portable air-defence system (MANPADS) developed by MESKO, part of the state defence group PGZ. It is a single-shot, shoulder-launched short-range surface-to-air missile evolved from Poland's earlier GROM (itself a licensed development of the Soviet 9K38 Igla / SA-18). The Piorun's improvements are concentrated where they matter most against modern threats: a far more sensitive infrared seeker (reportedly several times more sensitive than GROM's), a combined proximity-and-impact fuze that can kill small targets even on a near-miss, and added features like a thermal sight rail and an authorization/IFF system. The result is a weapon able to engage not just aircraft and helicopters but the cruise missiles and drones that dominate the modern air threat — at low cost, from any soldier's shoulder, with no large signature for an enemy to find and destroy.

Development

The Piorun entered Polish service in 2019, the product of a long Polish line from the Igla through GROM to GROM-M/Piorun, developed by MESKO with the Military University of Technology and partners, per Army Recognition and Wikipedia. Its reputation was made in Ukraine: Poland supplied Pioruns from the war's start, and Ukrainian crews posted a stream of videos of them downing Russian aircraft, helicopters, cruise missiles and drones, validating the weapon's improved seeker and fuze in the most demanding real-world conditions. That combat record drove a surge of demand — the US Department of Defense negotiated a purchase in 2022, MESKO passed its 3,000th Piorun in 2025, and customers including Norway, Estonia, Lithuania and others adopted it, with Germany signalling interest. It has become MESKO's flagship product and a symbol of Poland's growing defence-industrial weight.

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